Many Colorado property owners are surprised to learn that they have limited ownership and control over an irrigation ditch running through or across their properties. Here are answers to seven frequently asked questions about irrigation ditches:

It depends. You may have purchased the right to use water from the ditch, but that right may be limited based on the season, the type of use, and the amount of water you can use. This may be spelled out in the title work associated with the property. However, there are many ways to create and establish ownership rights in an irrigation ditch. As a result, the Colorado Constitution, Colorado statutes, and Colorado common law may establish or define those rights. If you did not purchase the right to use water from the ditch along with your property, then you are prohibited from taking and using any of the water running through the ditch.

It depends. If you purchased the right to use water from the ditch along with your property, you may be responsible for ditch maintenance or you be required to pay an annual fee for ditch maintenance to a Ditch or Irrigation Company. If you did not purchase the right to use water from the ditch along with your property, you are not responsible for ditch maintenance.

No. You are generally prohibited from damaging, moving, blocking, or otherwise altering the ditch without prior permission from the ditch owner.

Yes. Specific language in a deed or other conveyance document may outline the rights of the ditch owner to access your property. For example, the owner may own the ditch itself or have an easement right to the ditch. Otherwise, Colorado law provides ditch owners with a “right-of-way” through your property to convey irrigation water, construct, operate, clean, maintain, repair, line, pipe, or replace the ditch as well as to access the ditch for these and all other reasonable and necessary purposes related to the ditch.[1]

It depends. Governing documents may address the ditch owner’s ability to alter the ditch or a ditch owner’s rights may be derived from a state statute. Colorado statutes provide that a ditch owner may line, pipe, or replace ditch structures to improve the efficiency of the ditch, but they typically cannot enlarge the ditch without condemning the property and paying for it through a set process for doing so.

Irrigation ditches can be turned on and shut off by the owner depending on a variety of factors, including the weather or growing season as well as the available water supply and demand.

In Colorado, there are a variety of non-profit organizations that own, manage, and/or operate irrigation ditches. For example, there are Mutual Ditch Companies, Ditch Associations, Reservoir Companies, and Irrigation Districts. “Mutual ditch companies are the most common kind of irrigation company. A mutual ditch company is a private, voluntary, non-profit, fee-collecting entity. The company holds water rights, and members purchase shares in the company. Water is allocated annually by share, and shareholders pay assessments for company upkeep.” [2]

SOURCES

[1] See Colo. Const. art. XVI, §7, Colo. Rev. Stat. §§37-86-102, 37-86-103.

[2] Colorado State University, Public and Environment History Center, Irrigation Companies or Irrigation Districts – Public and Environmental History Center (colostate.edu).

Our Water and Conservation Group is well-versed in water and easement law and is here to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have regarding an irrigation ditch on your property or any property you are seeking to purchase in Colorado.