Ditches can be fun

Irrigation ditches have long been a crucial part of water distribution in the arid Colorado climate, and property owners seldom hold clear title to the ditches that run through their property — after all, the ditch is there because someone on the other side of one's property needs the water in it. A complex web of ditch easements crisscrosses Colorado, and few of them are express easements laid out in deeds.

In the context of rapid real estate development in Colorado, this leads to quite a few conflicts between developers and ditch companies. Moreover, the law is changing. Ditch owners uniformly won litigation in the past, but the Colorado Supreme Court recently endorsed a balancing-of-interests approach. That, of course, has opened a great deal of new questions for potential litigation.

Thanks to Karl Kumli and Star Waring of Dietze and Davis, P.C. for an interesting, informative, and well-presented discussion.