Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Investing in water Category
Click here to view all posts

Investing in water: Absolute water rights and the absolute right to profit

Posted by: Maven on April 17, 2009 at 11:56 am

From Energy & Capital:

Have you ever heard of absolute water rights? If you haven’t, you soon will.

It’s a story over a century in the making, dating back to Civil War times. But its effect has serious profit implications in present day.

It was the 1850s when the first water rights were decreed in Colorado. And by 1864 the entire base flow of the Purgatory River had been appropriated. About the same time, hundreds of thousands of prospectors began searching for gold in the area. They were the participants of Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. You may know them better as Fifty-Niners, after the peak year of the rush.

But those miners not only secured a fortune for themselves, they unknowingly started a trend that would make you a fortune well over a century later.

Read more from Energy & Capital by clicking here.

April 17, 2009 · Filed Under Investing in water

Comments

One Response to “Investing in water: Absolute water rights and the absolute right to profit”

  1. dfb on April 18th, 2009 1:43 am

    Even in Colorado, the water claim must not be speculative and the water must be used for beneficial purposes to be valid. So far, the water rights claimed for oil shale production by the oil companies has been speculative with some estimates putting their actual use at 20 years out. In addition, what is beneficial is subject to debate and definition and a balancing test. In California, the water use must be reasonable as well and I’ve read at least one Colorado Supreme Court opinion implies that reasonable use is also required in Colorado. It will be interesting how it turns out.

Leave a Reply