Integration of Surface Water and Groundwater Rights Colorado’s Experience

• Published in: Water Policy and Planning pp. 346 - 359
• Main Author: Cech, Thomas V.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: CRC Press 2016
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Water Rights; Augmentation Water; Tributary Groundwater; Senior Water; Prior Appropriation; Surface Water Users; Collective Choice Arrangements; Augmentation Plans; Surface Water; Groundwater Management; Northeastern Colorado; Colorado Constitution; South Platte River; Groundwater Users; South Platte River Basin; State Water Plan; Augmentation Water Supplies; Groundwater Irrigators; Colorado Supreme Court; Cache La Poudre River; Violate; Pinto Beans; Senior Water Rights; Sur-face Water; Groundwater Pumping
• ISBN: 1482227975; 1138490865; 9781482227970; 9781138490864
• DOI: 10.1201/b19534-18

347Groundwater and surface water are hydraulically connected in some regions of the world. This type of groundwater system is called a tributary aquifer and can affect flows of adjacent streams. Colorado state law requires all water users—of both surface and tributary groundwater—to follow a strict water-right priority system of “first in time, first in right.” This Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, adopted in Colorado in 1876, is rigidly followed today. Since 2003, thousands of tributary groundwater irrigation wells have been curtailed from pumping (legally shut off) due to the negative impacts of pumping depletions that reduce stream flow. Surface and tributary groundwater use conflicts are inevitable in locations where rigid water-allocation systems are followed. Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom points out that common-pool resource management requires collective-choice arrangements if resource users—in this case, surface water and groundwater users—are to develop a stable management plan.