Concerning the Application of Busk-Ivanhoe, Inc., a Colorado Corporation in Adams, Arapahoe, Chaffee, Douglas…

Summary

The court reversed the water court's approval of the change application and remanded for a new historic consumptive use quantification. It held that eastern-slope storage before the water was applied to its decreed irrigation use was not authorized by the decree, that water used to pay for that storage could not be included in the quantification, and that the period of undecreed municipal use could not automatically be excluded from the representative study period. Chief Justice Rice, joined by Justice Hood, dissented in part, concluding that the storage and storage payments were lawful but agreeing that unjustified non-use should be considered as zero-use years.