Current through Bulletin 2024-18, September 15, 2024
(1) A Declaration shall be prepared by Water
Right Holders using either a form provided by the State Engineer or an
alternative document containing the same information.
(a) To be considered acceptably complete, a
Declaration must:
(i) be signed by all Water
Right Holders in the Water Use Group: and
(ii) include documentation supporting the
Beneficial Use Amounts declared.
(b) A Declaration shall apportion the
Beneficial Use Amount of a water right in the Water Use Group according to the
average annual Beneficial Use of each water right being quantified on a
long-term basis or by any other evaluation method consistent with the
information contained in the State Engineer's records.
(c) The Declaration form shall include a
statement acknowledged by those signing the form and recognizing that the
Beneficial Use Amounts declared by the Declaration is not a general
adjudication of the water rights involved under Chapter 73-4.
(d) The State Engineer may require additional
documentation to support the Beneficial Use Amounts declared in a
Declaration.
(e) The State Engineer
will review and evaluate a Declaration as described in
R655-16-7.
(2) A Declaration filed in
connection with a Change Application.
(a)
Shall be required in situations where:
(i) the
Change Application is filed on fewer than all of the water rights in a Water
Use Group;
(ii) the Change
Application seeks to remove a water right from a Water Use Group;
(iii) the Beneficial Use Amount of a water
right to be removed from the Water Use Group has not been quantified;
and
(iv) the nature of the change
requires a quantification of the Sole Supply of the water right being
changed.
(b) Shall be
prepared for each Water Use Group to which the water right or the portion of
the water right to be changed has been assigned.
(c) May quantify only the Beneficial Use
Amount of the water right that would be the subject of a Change
Application.
(d) Must, together
with any other Declarations required by the Change Application, if the water
right has been assigned to more than one Water Use Group, declare the Sole
Supply of the water right or the portion of the water right to be
changed.
(3) A
Declaration to declare the Beneficial Use Amount of a water right for which
Proof has been filed:
(a) May be required in
situations where:
(i) the Beneficial Use
Amount has not been quantified for the water right in the Water Use Group for
which Proof has been filed; and
(ii) the Proof is filed on fewer than all of
the water rights in the Water Use Group; or
(iii) the Water Right Holder who has filed
Proof does not hold all the water rights in the Water Use Group.
(b) Shall be prepared for each
Water Use Group to which the water right for which Proof has been filed
belongs.
(c) May quantify only the
Beneficial Use Amount of the water right that would be the subject of the
Proof.
(d) Must, together with any
other Declarations required for the Proof, if the water right has been assigned
to more than one Water Use Group, declare the Sole Supply of the water right
for which Proof has been filed.
(4) The filing of a Declaration does not
limit the ability of a Water Right Holder to continue to use the water rights
together supplementally as they have historically been used. Regardless of the
Beneficial Use Amounts declared in a Declaration, the previous supplemental use
of the water rights may continue, with the exclusion of any water right removed
from the group through an approved Change Application or invalidated through
other legal or administrative process.
(5) Once accepted for filing, a Declaration
may only be revised by filing a new Declaration:
(a) That is signed by at least all Water
Right Holders within the Water Use Group affected by the revision and whose
Beneficial Use Amounts were previously declared by the filing of a Declaration;
and
(b) That addresses only water
rights that have not been previously removed from the Water Use Group through
an approved Change Application or invalidated through other legal or
administrative process.
