Concerning the Application for Water Rights of the City and County of Denver, Acting by and Through Its Board Of…

Summary

The court held that return flows from water imported through the Roberts Tunnel under Denver's Blue River exchange and substitution operations are not subject to the 1940 Agreement's reuse prohibition. Because Denver's Blue River source and exchange operations were acquired or adjudicated after May 1, 1940, Denver may reuse and successively use the resulting return flows. The court also declined to adopt a mandatory character-of-exchange rule that would attribute the substitute supply's pre-1940 priority to the imported water.