One complicated topic in real
estate is water rights. Everybody needs water, but not everyone can own water.
And, certainly in Colorado, people cannot do whatever they want with water.
A long time ago, when Colorado became a state in 1876, the founders
placed water issues directly into their state Constitution. If you want to see,
there is a copy of the Colorado
Constitution held in the archives. If you look on page 42, you will
see Article 16, Section 5 states: "The water of every natural stream, not
heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be
the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people
of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided."
What this means is that the State of Colorado governs the use of water
in the state. Section 5 essentially states that any water not already claimed
and being used, was owned by the public and the state would make decisions
about it. The next section, Section 6, states that if someone wants to use
unclaimed water for beneficial reasons, there is a priority about that use.
When there isn't enough water for all uses, domestic use has first priority.
After that, agricultural use is second, and manufacturing use is third and
last.
This makes good sense, as long as farmland isn't condemned and replaced
by subdivisions, making us lose too much of our food source. However, it seems
that the court cases since then have been interested in paying farmers for their
water rights.
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