Our water law attorneys are recognized leaders in Western water law. We have developed and implemented complex and innovative water supply plans, including domestic use and snowmaking supplies, for numerous residential, commercial, and ski area clients.
Our work includes evaluating and documenting complex water sales and acquisitions; adjudicating water rights, change of water rights, and augmentation and exchange plans; permitting wells; consulting regarding dam permitting; and undertaking water right analyses in a variety of contexts. Our firm also performs water rights title research in connection with large ranch acquisitions and water ownership disputes.
Our firm’s water rights adjudications and counseling concern all types of water rights recognized under Colorado law, including storage reservoirs, gravel pits, irrigation ditch interests, Colorado-Big Thompson (CBT) units and Windy Gap units, tributary and nontributary groundwater, designated groundwater, and shares in mutual ditch and reservoir companies.
We practice in all of the water courts in Colorado, as well as in administrative proceedings before the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Office of the State Engineer, and the Colorado Ground Water Commission. Water rights issues are frequently intertwined with real property ownership and regulatory issues such as easements or other legal authorizations pertaining to water rights structures on private and public lands.
Accordingly, our water practice often complements the firm’s ongoing real estate and land use work, and vice-versa. Together, these areas of practice provide clients with a full range of services for real estate-related projects.