R655-16-6. Declaration of Beneficial Use Amounts

(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.