With respect to each division
described in section 37-92-201, the priority date awarded for water rights or conditional water
rights adjudged and decreed on applications for a determination of the amount and priority
thereof filed in such division during each calendar year shall establish the relative priority among
other water rights or conditional water rights awarded on such applications filed in that calendar
year; but such water rights or conditional water rights shall be junior to all water rights or
conditional water rights awarded on such applications filed in any previous calendar year and
shall also be junior to all priorities awarded in decrees entered prior to June 7, 1969, or decrees
entered in proceedings which were pending on such date; except that, with respect to water rights
which are diverted by means of wells, the priorities for which have not been established or
sought in any such decree or proceeding, if the person claiming such a water right files an
application for determination of water right and priority not later than July 1, 1972, and such
application is approved and confirmed, such water right, subject to the provisions of section 37-
92-305 (1), shall be given a priority date as of the date of actual appropriation and shall not be
junior to other priorities by reason of the foregoing provision.
Source: L. 69: p. 1212, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 148-21-22. L. 71: p. 1333, § 1.
Notes of Decisions
United States v. Bell, 724 P.2d 631 (Colo. 1986).
· cites it 22× “Under Colorado law, vested ap-propriative water rights are subject to the postponement doctrine set out in section 37-92-306, 15 C.R.S. (1973). 13 Priority of *642 appropriation determines the relative priority among water rights or conditional water rights awarded in one…”
Navajo Dev. Co. v. Sanderson, 655 P.2d 1374 (Colo. 1982).
· cites it 6× “Once a water right has been adjudicated, section 37-92-306, C.R.S.1973, it is given a legally vested priority date which entitles the owner to a certain amount of water subject only to the rights of senior appropriators and the amount of water which is available for…”
State v. Sw. Colorado Water Conservation Dist., 671 P.2d 1294 (Colo. 1983).
· cites it 6× “Further, the special water judge held that if it clearly appears that the priority date for a particular calendar year may be lost ( see section 37-92-306, C.R.S.1973), then the application could be filed in water court and *1320 the hearing deferred until the state engineer…”
Sierra Club v. Lyng, 661 F. Supp. 1490 (D. Colo. 1987).
· cites it 11× “such [water] division during each calendar year shall establish the relative priority among other water rights or conditional water rights awarded on such applications filed in that calendar year; but such water rights or conditional water rights shall be junior to all water…”
S. Ute Indian Tribe v. King Consol. Ditch Co., 250 P.3d 1226 (Colo. 2011).
· cites it 2× “Section 37-92-306 does not result in the assignment of a new priority date for adjudications of applications seeking relief other than a "determination of a water right" under section 37-92-302(1)(a).”
Closed Basin Landowners Ass'n v. Rio Grande Water Conservation Dist., 734 P.2d 627 (Colo. 1987).
· cites it 2× “As the water court found, an unusually large number of applications were filed in 1972 to adjudicate water rights diverted by wells to take advantage of the "grandfather” provisions of section 37-92-306, 15 C.R.S. (1973), which allowed holders of underground water rights to…”
Purgatoire River Water Conservancy Dist. v. Witte, 859 P.2d 825 (Colo. 1993).
· cites it 4× “Specifically, Purgatoire argues that the absolute water right asserted in its December 1989 application differs from the abandoned conditional right because by operation of section 37-92-306, see supra note 15, that absolute right would be administered with a priority junior to…”
Sierra Club v. Yeutter, 911 F.2d 1405 (10th Cir. 1990).
· cites it 3× “1986) (en banc); Colo. Rev.Stat. § 37-92-306 (1973). When and if a water development claim that may threaten wilderness water values is filed, and the Forest Service does not assert a federal reserved water right based on the Wilderness Act, and furthermore such failure to…”
R.J.A., Inc. v. Water Users Ass'n of Dist. No. 6, 690 P.2d 823 (Colo. 1984).
· cites it 2× “2d at 1325-27 , and concluded: [Present section 37-92-306, 15 C.R.S. (1973) prescribing the ranking of water rights by priorities] cannot be ignored.”
Bd. of Cnty. Commissioners of Arapahoe v. United States, 891 P.2d 952 (Colo. 1995).
“§ 37-92-306, 15 C.R.S. (1990)! Thus, two dates are critical in determining priority: the date the application was filed, which sets the calendar year the water right was filed and establishes priority in relation to filings in other calendar years; and the date appropriation was…”
— Colo. Rev. Stat. § 37-92-306(8) — 1 case
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