In the Matter of the Application for Water Rights of the Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority in Eagle and Summit…

Summary

The court held that retained jurisdiction over an augmentation-plan decree may be invoked not only to remedy actual injury but also to prevent likely future injury revealed by operational experience. The petitions sufficiently alleged that the Authority's depletion accounting understated actual depletions, so dismissal was improper even though the supplemental reservoirs had not released water during the relevant irrigation seasons. The court reversed and remanded for evidentiary proceedings addressing injury, adequacy of the existing decree, and possible extension or revision of the retained-jurisdiction periods.