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Water court and the legal machinery
Colorado is the only state that gives water its own court system. Seven water courts, one per division, hold exclusive jurisdiction over every matter that creates, changes, or confirms a water right. C.R.S. § 37-92-203(1)
The whole apparatus exists to answer one question, over and over: does what you want to do injure somebody else's right? Not whether your use is better, or newer, or more valuable — only whether anyone downstream is hurt.
That single standard explains why Colorado water cases look the way they do. They are engineering arguments — about depletions, timing and return flows — conducted in legal language, and they are usually settled by negotiating decree conditions rather than by winning a trial. These pages work through the machinery in the order you would meet it.
- Colorado's seven water courts
Seven courts, a judge and a referee, the monthly resume, and the deadlines that bind you.
- How a water right gets adjudicated
The case that turns an appropriation into a decreed right — and why the decree does not create your priority.
- Can you still get a new water right?
Legally guaranteed, practically difficult: what a 2026 priority is actually worth.
- Plans for augmentation
Replacing what you deplete — the mechanism that makes most new wells possible.
- When you need a water rights attorney
The four situations where the cost is obviously worth it, and how to choose.
The deadlines worth memorizing
| Event | Deadline |
|---|---|
| File a statement of opposition | Last day of the second month after the application was filed |
| Referee rules or rerefers | 63 days after the opposition deadline |
| Protest a referee's ruling | 21 days from mailing |
All three come from C.R.S. §§ 37-92-302 to -304, and none of them will be extended because you did not read the resume that month. Appeals from a water court go straight to the Colorado Supreme Court. Colorado Judicial Branch
Before you get here
Most people arrive at this section from a transaction or a well. If you are mid-purchase, buying and selling covers the diligence that should happen first. If you are trying to identify a right, start with looking it up — walking into a water attorney's office with the decree and the WDID already in hand is the single cheapest thing you can do.
Common questions
What does a Colorado water court do?
It has exclusive jurisdiction over water matters in its division: determining new water rights and conditional rights, approving changes of water right and plans for augmentation, making findings of reasonable diligence, and approving exchanges. Under C.R.S. § 37-92-203(1) no judge other than the designated water judge may act on those matters.
What standard does the water court apply?
Injury. C.R.S. § 37-92-305(3)(a) requires approval of a change of water right or plan for augmentation if it will not injuriously affect the owner of, or persons entitled to use water under, a vested or decreed conditional water right. The court does not weigh whether the proposed use is more beneficial than the existing one.
How do I know if someone has applied for something that affects me?
Read the monthly resume for your water division, which the water clerk must publish and post online, and ask the clerk to add you to the electronic notification list. That publication starts the clock on your right to file a statement of opposition.
Primary sources
- C.R.S. §§ 37-92-203, -302 to -305 — water courts, applications and standards (Title 37, official text) C.R.S. 2025 edition
- Colorado Judicial Branch — water courts read July 22, 2026