The Colorado Supreme Court now holds in its hands the future of state water rules contending that no more water can be taken from the San Luis Valley’s deep confined aquifer without putting the same amount of water back in. Attorneys representing the state and Valley water users argued last week to the higher court on behalf of the state engineer’s confined aquifer rules that had been upheld by Water Judge O. John Kuenhold. Attorney Allan Hale argued against the rules on behalf of the opposer Cotton Creek Circles, a 4,700-acre cattle ranch near Moffat watered by Cotton Creek that flows out of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. “The rules at issue are contrary to statute and violate the constitutional right to appropriate the waters of this state,” Hale said. “The water court’s judgment and decree approving the rules should be vacated and the case remanded to the state engineer with instructions to follow Colorado law." Hale argued that the state engineer in these rules was only addressing a part of the overappropriation problem by addressing only the confined aquifer at this point and not the wells in the unconfined aquifer.

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