Changes of Water Rights
Changes of water rights (to new uses or new places of use) commonly involve analyses of the historical use of the originally decreed water right for its decreed purpose(s). Martin and Wood personnel perform historical use analyses of ditch rights, storage rights, and groundwater rights. The Water Courts rely upon the engineer’s analyses and associated expert testimony to quantify the historical use of the water rights to be changed. Martin and Wood personnel have successfully engineered changes of water rights throughout Colorado.
Lone Rock Project
Lone Rock H2O and its family predecessors have long owned and used several ditch rights diverting from Deer Creek near Bailey to irrigate hay for their cattle. Lone Rock H2O decided to subdivide its property and to sell off the surplus historical use from a change of water rights.
For the water court change case, Martin and Wood performed the engineering analyses of historical use, quantified the amount of augmentation storage required, and developed terms and conditions to limit the future use of the changed ditch rights to their historical uses.
