Coors Brewing Co. v. City of Denver

JUSTICE GABRIEL delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 This case concerns Coors Brewing Company's application to amend its decreed augmentation plans to authorize the reuse and successive use of return flows from water that Coors diverts out of priority pursuant to those plans. The City of Golden opposed this application, arguing that Coors could not proceed by amendment but must adjudicate a new water right to reuse or make successive use of the return flows. On competing motions for determinations of questions of law, the water court ruled that (1) any amount of water not beneficially used…