Agenda

Registration:                        8:00 – 8:30 am

Morning Session:                8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Lunch (On your own):         12:00 – 1:00 pm

Afternoon Session:             1:00 – 4:30 pm

Development of Water Laws: Quantity, Quality and Usage 
R. Kropf

   Development of the common law of water rights   
   Statutory and regulatory limits on the exercise of water rights
   Federal, state and local regulators
   Development of the law on water quality preservation
   Comprehensive water planning
   Valuing water supplies

Understanding Colorado Surface Water and Groundwater Rights
M. Machado, S. Barrett

   Ownership of surface water
   Regulation of surface water rights v. groundwater
   Obtaining water rights
   Application and permitting process
   Changing and augmenting water rights
   Current issues

Complying with Water Quality Laws and Regulations
D. Lipson

   State and federal water quality regulations
   Stormwater regulations
   Sewerage regulations
   Industrial and agricultural programs
   Public water supply
   Water wells

Ethical Issues in Water Law and Regulation
C. Covell

   Ethical issues in water use
   Ethical issues in development
   Ethical issues in water transactions

Water Utility Supply and Regulation
K. Moseley

   Types of water utilities
   Regulation of utility service areas
   Application and permitting process for service areas
   Utility construction design standards and approvals
   Current issues in utility service area regulation

State and Regional Water Management and Planning
R. Kropf, J. Gimbel

   Surface water resources J. Gimbel
   Groundwater resources
   State and regional water planning
   Interstate water compacts
   Recent developments
   Future projections and challenges

Credits

Colorado Attorneys
      8.0 CLE Hours
      including1.2 Ethics Credits

Professional Engineers
     6.5 PDHs

Floodplain Managers
     6.5 ASFPM CECs

Continuing Education Credit Information

This seminar is open to the public. The Colorado Board of CLE has approved this course for 8.0 CLE hours for attorneys, including 1.2 ethics credits.

This course also offers 6.5 PDHs to professional engineers in Colorado. Educators and courses are not subject to preapproval in Colorado.

The Association of State Floodplain Managers has approved this course for 6.5 CECs.

Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the seminar for most individuals who complete the entire event. Attendance certificates not available at the seminar will be mailed to participants within fifteen business days.

Speakers

Steven Barrett

HRS Water Consultants, Inc

Principal, Water Resources Specialist, HRS Water Consultants, Inc., Lakewood, CO
Mr. Barrett has over 18 years of experience in the water resources field. Prior to working at HRS, he worked for the Colorado Division of Water Resources in various positions, including deputy water commissioner (Animas River), engineering technician (Denver Basin) and hydrographer (South Platte River Basin). These positions provided experience in several different aspects of water rights administration, including both groundwater and surface water rights. This experience provided a strong basis for understanding the complexities of the prior appropriation system and how water rights are administered and accounted for in the State of Colorado. Since beginning work at HRS in 2008, Mr. Barrett has assisted clients with a variety of projects ranging from change of use cases and augmentation plan development to client water rights protection, water rights accounting, GIS/DB project development, water rights valuations, and water resources planning. Mr. Barrett received a M.Eng. degree in GIS from the University of Colorado, Denver and a B.S. degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas.

Cynthia Covell

Alperstein & Covell P.C.

Co-Founder, Shareholder of Alperstein & Covell P.C., Denver
Ms. Covell graduated from the University of Colorado in 1974 and from the University of Denver College of Law in 1977. Her practice emphasizes water rights matters, and the representation of municipalities, non-profit organizations, individuals and businesses in the acquisition, transfer, sale, change and adjudication of water rights and water supplies. Ms. Covell is a member of the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee, the Colorado Supreme Court Standing Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct, the Colorado Supreme Court’s Attorney Regulation Advisory Committee, and the Court’s hearing board panel for disciplinary cases.

Jennifer Gimbel

Colorado State University
Ms. Gimbel has a juris doctor degree from the University of Wyoming, a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Delaware and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming. She currently is the senior water policy scholar for the Colorado Water Center, based at Colorado State University. In this position she teaches a graduate seminar on water issues and develops policy strategy papers on issues facing the Colorado River and the Upper Basin states, of which Colorado is one. Before that, she served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for water and science in the Department of the Interior and was deputy commissioner for external and intergovernmental affairs for the Bureau of Reclamation. From 2008 to 2013, Gimbel was the director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, a group within the Department of Natural Resources that works to protect and develop the state’s water resources.

Ramsey L. Kropf

Attorney , Somach Simmons & Dunn | Attorneys At Law
For over two decades, Ms. Kropf has impacted the status and outcome of some of the West’s most challenging water issues. Her experience is built on a unique combination of high-level legal work in both the private and public sectors where she has successfully handled cases with far-reaching, national implications. She is a shareholder with Somach Simmons & Dunn’s Boulder, Colorado office. Ms. Kropf joined the firm after completing an appointment as the deputy solicitor in the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. She currently mediates Indian water right settlements and other Reclamation matters in New Mexico and California, represents a variety of clients in the Colorado River Basin, along with work in Oregon’s Klamath Basin, Washington State, and other Colorado, regional, and interstate water matters. She is admitted to practice law in Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming as well as the Federal District Court, Colorado, and the United States Supreme Court. She has also served as chair of the Water Resources Committee of the American Bar Association.

David Lipson

HRS Water Consultants, Inc

Principal, Hydrogeologist of HRS Water Consultants, Inc., Lakewood
Dr. Lipson is a principal hydrogeologist at HRS Water Consultants, Inc., specializing in groundwater and surface-water hydrology, groundwater-surface water interactions, water quality, fate and transport of contaminants, groundwater remediation, and geochemistry. Dr. Lipson brings more than 28 years of experience working in Colorado, throughout the U.S., and internationally, solving clients’ most important water problems. He has taught groundwater engineering and remediation courses as an adjunct professor at Colorado School of Mines and as visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing. He is an editor of the journal Groundwater, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Scientists and Engineers Section of the National Ground Water Association (NGWA).

Matthew Machado

Shareholder, Lyons Gaddis, Louisville
Mr. Machado is an expert on surface water and groundwater rights, ditches and associated interests in land. He has 17 years of experience assisting farmers, ranchers, landowners, developers, mutual ditch companies, private ditch and lateral owners, well user groups, special districts, and municipalities in acquiring, selling, developing and protecting interests in land and water rights throughout Colorado. He clerked for the U.S. Department of Justice, the Nature Conservancy and the American Whitewater Association. He represents clients before Colorado’s district courts, water courts, the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Ground Water Commission, the State Engineer, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, and various other local government entities.

Kristin Moseley

Porzak Browning & Bushong, LLP

Partner at Porzak Browning & Bushong, LLP, Boulder
Ms. Moseley focuses her practice on water rights law and real estate. She is a member of the Boulder, Colorado (Member, Water Law Section) and American (Member, Natural Resources Law Section) bar associations. She earned her B.A. degree from Michigan State University and her J.D. degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ms. Moseley represents private and municipal clients in water rights transactions, water court litigation and in state and federal legislative matters.