Concerning the Application for Water Rights of County of Boulder in Boulder County v. Boulder & Weld County Ditch Co.

¶ 1 Boulder County is developing a property known as the Bailey Farm into a public open-space park which will feature several ponds formed when abandoned gravel pits filled with groundwater. Because two of the pits-turned-ponds exposed groundwater after January 1, 1981, the County must replace out-of-priority stream1 depletions caused by evaporation from those ponds. See § 87-90-137(ll)(a)-(b), C.R.S. (2015). To meet this obligation, the County filed an application for underground wáter rights, approval of a plan for augmentation, a change of water rights, ánd an appropriative right of…