Almo Water Company v. Darrington

McQUADE, Chief Justice.

The issues in this unusual water rights case require the application of law to complex facts, pieced together from a record that is a thicket of obscurities and apparent contradictions. The foundation of our analysis is a comprehensive statement of the facts as we perceive them.

I

Water District 8-E is located in an arid region of the state where farming and ranching depend on irrigation from mountain streams during the summer run-off. Rights to the water in Almo Creek and Edwards Creek, portrayed on the following map, were established in 1928 by a federal district court…