Mr. Daugherty provides legal representation and strategic counsel on water rights, water quality, and water-related legislation to municipalities, water and wastewater providers, Indian tribes, universities, ditch companies, developers, and private ranches, resorts, and landowners. He brings a blend of private practice and public interest experience to a dynamic practice that spans representation of both large and small entities in water rights matters across the county. Mr. Daugherty advises municipal water suppliers with complex integrated systems on protecting and expanding their water rights portfolios, helps regulated entities navigate complicated water quality regulations, assists landowners in understanding their decreed and undecreed water rights, negotiates comprehensive agreements for ditch companies and developers, and defends water users’ rights in court. He regularly appears before state and federal courts, agencies, and commissions and counsels clients on federal, state, and local water-related regulation and administration. Mr. Daugherty’s years living and working in Indian County inform his approach to matters involving tribal interests. Before joining the firm, he worked in the Navajo Nation’s attorney general office, where he provided legal representation and counsel to the tribal departments of land, environmental protection, fish and wildlife, and historic preservation. Mr. Daugherty earned his J.D. degree from the University of Colorado School of Law.

Ms. Dickinson is a water resource engineer with the Division of Water Resources and a board member of the nonprofit Colorado Groundwater Association. She previously worked in the South Platte River basin and Denver Basin, and now currently supports water administration in the Gunnison, Colorado, Yampa and White River basins. She studied environmental engineering and hydrology at the Colorado School of Mines. She grew up in Colorado and enjoys hiking and rock climbing.

Mr. Kelley advises clients in the agriculture, natural resource, and advanced energy industries related to complex real property and regulatory issues. From his experience sorting cattle and throwing irrigation tubes, to helping clients solve title, survey, mineral, and water issues, he brings a practical approach to developing legal project strategies; navigating the federal, state, and local permitting processes; and monitoring the ongoing governmental rulemakings that impact his clients’ projects. Mr. Kelly provides general counsel services to agriculture and oil and gas clients, advises clients through mining and oil and gas transactions, solves title questions, provides water rights counsel, and helps clients navigate public lands law. He has experience representing clients before the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and Colorado Water Court, drafting oil and gas development plans, and assisting clients as they navigate implementing solar energy projects. His knowledge extends to regulatory matters across the Rocky Mountain West.

Ms. Leppek brings over a decade of in-depth professional experience in water rights and water resources engineering, stakeholder-informed planning, watershed management, water supply and demand planning, water efficiency planning, water resources funding support, and expert witness testimony. Ms. Leppek leads the Water Resources Team in SGM’s Glenwood Springs office. Her team supports a wide range of clients across Colorado with water rights acquisition and agreements, water court applications, changed water rights, plans for augmentation and exchange, water rights portfolio management, well permitting, hydraulic modeling and more. Outside of work, she volunteers with Middle Colorado Watershed Council and writes spoken word poetry about water issues.

Ms. Light received her bachelors of science – civil engineering degree from Colorado State University in 1993 and her masters of science – civil engineering degree with emphasis in hydraulics and hydrology also from Colorado State University in 1998. Ms. Light started her engineering career in consulting working for Muller Engineer Company in Lakewood, CO and then went on to work with the United State Bureau of Reclamation also in Lakewood before joining the Colorado Division of Water Resources (DWR) in 2001. With DWR, Ms. Light began working as the hydrographer and eventually took on the duties of the assistant division engineer in Division 6. Ms. Light was appointed division engineer for Division 6 in August 2006. Ms. Light lives in Steamboat Springs with her husband, and her daughter, a recent graduate from high school, is now attending college at Western Colorado University.

Mr. Racz advises municipalities, agriculture, mining, industry, and utilities on all aspects of compliance with the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Colorado Water Quality Control Act (CWQCA). Mr. Racz regularly represents clients in hearings and public comments regarding water quality standards, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), rule makings, and policies. His experience also includes all aspects of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and Colorado Discharge Permit System (CDPS) permits including public comment, adjudications, litigation, compliance advice, enforcement, and citizens suits. Mr. Racz regularly provides comment and testimony on the intersection of water quality and water resources regulation and legislation. With an emphasis on the unique challenges of water supply projects in the arid west, he counsels clients through environmental permitting, including CWA Section 404 dredge and fill and wetland permitting, water quality certifications, Endangered Species Act consultation and permitting (ESA), and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). He also represents clients in acquiring, protecting, and using water rights, including water rights adjudication for surface and groundwater rights, changes of water rights, and plans for augmentation, as well as water rights purchase and sale transactions. Mr. Racz earned his J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law.