The increasing demand for a limited amount of water in the state has prompted crackdowns on illegal use by everyone from second-home owners in resort areas to ranchers on the Eastern Plains. "f you're using water outside the terms and conditions of your permit, you're literally stealing someone else's water," said Scott Hummer, a state water commissioner who issued warnings to more than 200 residents near Breckenridge this fall. That someone-else includes Denver and a string of small ranches with senior water rights. In Summit County, the illegal use of water from about 3,900 "household only" wells siphons flows from the Blue River, which supplies the ranches and runs into Denver's Dillion Reservoir.

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