Concerning the Application for Water Rights ex rel. Board of Water Commissioners v. City of Englewood

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court held that properly quantified transmountain lawn irrigation return flows are legally indistinguishable from reusable transmountain effluent and may be used as substitute supply for Denver's decreed South Platte River exchanges. The court also held that junior appropriators may not claim injury based solely on the proper operation of those exchanges using such return flows. The court affirmed the water court's order resolving the legal questions under C.R.C.P. 56(h).

Holdings

1. Properly quantified transmountain lawn irrigation return flows are legally indistinguishable from reusable transmountain effluent and therefore may be used as substitute supply for Denver's exchange rights under the C.A. 3685 decree and the original 1921 and 1977 priority dates.
2. A junior appropriator may not claim injury based solely on Denver's proper operation of its senior C.A. 3685 exchanges using properly quantified transmountain lawn irrigation return flows.

Questions Presented

1. Whether properly quantified transmountain lawn irrigation return flows were a decreed source of substitute supply for Denver's exchanges under the C.A. 3685 decree, as modified by the W-8788-T7 decree, using the original priority dates.
2. Whether a junior appropriator could claim injury based solely on Denver's operation of those exchanges using properly quantified transmountain lawn irrigation return flows as substitute supply.

Disposition

affirmed