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Water rights, or the appropriation of water to the user based on priority is at the base of all water law in Colorado. In 1866 the federal Mining Act made the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation or first in time, first in right. This is to say that if an individual was on the land and needed water then it was theirs for the taking. Water was, as the state’s constitution declared, to be appropriated for “beneficial use”. Beneficial use historically meant that the water had to be diverted from a stream for mining and agriculture. In 1973 the meaning of “beneficial use” was expanded to appropriate minimum stream flows and maintain natural lake levels for environmental preservation. Currently the Upper South Platte’s water is all accounted for. The users include large municipals on the Front Range to ranchers within the watershed.
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