City of Thornton v. Bijou Irrigation Co.

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

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*19This case involves the City of Thornton’s Northern Project, one of the largest municipal water projects to come before this court in recent memory. Thornton appeals, and various objectors who oppose the Northern Project cross-appeal, from portions of a decree entered by the District Court for Water Division No. 1 in four consolidated cases, .case nos. 86CW401, 86CW402, 86CW403, and 87CW332. The trial court approved, subject to numerous terms and conditions, Thornton’s applications for adjudication of new conditional water rights (including exchanges) and for changes in use of existing water rights. Together, the rights so decreed provide the foundation for the Northern Project, which is expected to yield in excess of 50,000 acre feet of water to Thornton per year. We affirm the trial court’s entry of the decree granting Thornton’s applications for adjudication of the conditional rights and the changes of use. We also affirm the majority of the terms and conditions imposed by the trial court. However, we conclude that certain of the terms and conditions imposed in the decree are invalid or unwarranted. Thus, we reverse the trial court with respect to those terms and conditions and remand to that court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Facts and Procedural History A. Facts

The City of Thornton, the applicant in this case, is a municipal corporation of the State of Colorado. Thornton is a suburban community located north of the City and County of Denver on the South Platte River just north of, or downstream from, the confluence of that river with Clear Creek. The city owns and operates a municipal water and sewer system for the benefit of its citizens as well as certain additional consumers not located within the current municipal boundaries. The population served by Thornton’s water system at the time of trial was approximately 78,000 people.

Thornton currently derives the majority of the water it provides to its customers from water rights on the South Platte River and Clear Creek. Because Thornton is located downstream from other municipal and industrial users in the Denver metropolitan area, much of the water available for diversion under Thornton’s junior rights is polluted by runoff and effluent discharges before it reaches Thornton’s diversion points. Not surprisingly, the quality of this water has been gradually deteriorating, resulting in present or projected future problems for Thornton in complying with the standards set in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 300f to 300j-26 (1994). Thornton projects that as little as 10,000 acre feet of the expected future annual dry year yield of 26,000 acre feet from its current raw water rights will be available for potable use in the future.

Compounding the city’s water quality problems, projections developed by Thornton and its consultants indicate that Thornton’s population can be expected to rise steadily and substantially over the next fifty years, greatly increasing the demand on the city’s water supply system. These reports suggest that demand within Thornton’s water service area may exceed 93,000 acre feet by the year 2056. In the early 1980s, Thornton officials became increasingly concerned about the city’s ability to meet these projected demands and began investigating the potential use of a variety of sources to meet the city’s future needs. Ultimately, Thornton settled on the Cache La Poudre River (sometimes referred to as the Poudre River) as its intended water source of the future and began to generate plans for what would eventually become the Northern Project.

In late 1985 and 1986, Thornton set the Northern Project in motion by purchasing a 47.23% interest (283.354 out of 600 outstanding shares) in the Water Supply and Storage Company (WSSC), a mutual ditch company organized pursuant to Colorado law. At the same time, Thornton purchased a 5.21% interest (1.25 out of 24 outstanding shares) in the Jackson Ditch Company (JDC), which is also a mutual ditch company. The activities of JDC are coordinated with those of WSSC due to WSSC’s ownership of a substantial portion of the JDC shares.1 Along with its purchase of these shares, Thornton acquired *20approximately 100 farms comprising over 21,000 acres on which the majority of the acquired shares had been historically used for irrigation. The total cost to Thornton of this acquisition was approximately 55 million dollars.

The water rights acquired through the purchase of WSSC shares are the backbone of the Northern Project. WSSC owns water rights in the Poudre basin on the eastern slope and in the adjoining Michigan, Laramie, and Colorado River basins on the western slope. These water rights include direct flow, storage, transmountain, seepage, and river exchange rights. A study of the water years 1950 through 1985 by Thornton’s engineering consultant identified three major sources for water diverted by WSSC for distribution to its shareholders: (1) trans-mountain water, which originated on the western slope and was diverted through one of WSSC’s four transmountain diversion structures (average annual diversion of approximately 30,000 acre feet); (2) native water that is obtained by exercise of the direct flow and storage rights owned by WSSC (average annual diversions of approximately 31,500 acre feet); and (3) Colorado-Big Thompson (CBT) water diverted by virtue of WSSC’s leasing of water produced by the CBT project (average annual diversions of approximately 14,000 acre feet).2 The WSSC shares acquired by Thornton have been used by Thornton and its predecessors to irrigate the farms of WSSC shareholders in Larimer and Weld Counties north and east of Fort Collins. The change of use of these rights from irrigation to municipal uses will provide Thornton with access to a high quality source of raw water for its future municipal needs.

To effect the diversion and distribution of these waters to its shareholders, WSSC utilizes a wide variety of structures and facilities. WSSC operates the Larimer County Canal (sometimes referred to as the LCC), which has a capacity of approximately 750 cubic feet per second at its headgate and extends approximately fifty-eight miles from its point of diversion on the Cache La Poudre River near Ted’s Place in Larimer County to U.S. Highway 85 between the towns of Pierce and Ault in Weld County. In addition to the LCC, WSSC operates and utilizes eleven reservoirs, three transmountain ditches, one transmountain tunnel, the Jackson Extension Ditch, the aforementioned shares in JDC, and units in the CBT project. Three major laterals, the Pierce Lateral, the Collins Lateral, and the Lone Tree Lateral, branch out from the LCC and supply water to WSSC shareholders, but these laterals are not owned by WSSC. In exchange for monetary and other considerations, Thornton has secured WSSC’s permission to use all of the above facilities in the exercise of its newly acquired rights.

Thornton plans to construct the Northern Project in three phases, incrementally increasing its municipal water supply to meet its projected needs. The planned operation of the Northern Project involves a complex interrelationship of water acquisition and distribution methods, including diversion, exchange, storage, augmentation, and physical transportation. The following description, derived from a report prepared by Thornton’s engineering consultants and adopted by the trial court in its Memorandum of Decision (sometimes referred to as the MOD), should provide a sufficient understanding of the project to support our subsequent analysis. We address more specific aspects of the project as they become relevant in the context of our discussion of particular issues raised on appeal.

Phase I. In the year 2000, construction will begin on a pumping station at WSSC Reservoir No. 4, a 48 inch pipeline to carry water 56 miles to Thornton, and numerous related facilities. Initially, the Northern Project will deliver a minimum of approximately 1800 acre-feet during the year 2002, and will increase deliveries in annual increments of 500 to 1,300 acre-feet, matching Thornton’s increasing need for water. Phase I deliveries will level off at an average of approximately 33,200 acre-feet per year in 2028. Water delivered to Thornton in Phase I will be derived primarily from the gradual retirement of ap*21proximately 14,500 irrigated acres served by WSSC and owned by Thornton and from new (1986) appropriations of water by Thornton from the Poudre.

Phase II. In 2026, to meet Thornton system demands over and above those satisfied by Phase I, construction will begin on a parallel 48 inch pipeline to Thornton from WSSC Reservoir No. 4, together with a variety of other facilities, including return pipelines from the Poudre and South Platte Rivers to the Larimer County Canal near Elder Reservoir and south of Cobb Lake. Deliveries of water to Thornton through Phase II facilities will begin in the year 2029 and combined deliveries from Phase I and Phase II facilities will average approximately 56,900 acre-feet per year. Additional water delivered to Thornton in Phase II will be derived primarily from a “ditch exchange” under which Thornton will withdraw water from the WSSC system and, in exchange, return an equivalent amount of water from other sources owned by Thornton. The return water, or “substitute supply,” will be pumped to the Lar-imer County Canal from various locations along the Poudre and South Platte Rivers.

Phase III. In 2034 construction will begin on a parallel 72 inch return pipeline to deliver water back to the Larimer County Canal, thereby increasing the yield of the “ditch exchange” with the WSSC system. Additional deliveries from these Phase III facilities will begin in the year 2036 and will increase each year to help meet Thornton’s increasing need. New water delivered during Phase III will be derived from the use of Thornton’s WSSC shares for irrigation under the WSSC system to allow a ditch exchange on nearly the entire flow of the WSSC system.[3] The yield of the project at full development, utilizing Phase I, II and III facilities, will average approximately 67,000 acre-feet per year.[4]

MOD at 3-1 (quoting Ex. A-649, at pp. xii-xiii, Project Completion Study Report, Draft Report, Addendum, prepared by Rocky Mountain Consultants, Inc.). Thornton estimated that full development of the Northern Project will cost approximately $427,000,000 and will meet Thornton’s system demand through the year 2031.

B. Procedural History

Thornton’s planning and acquisitions culminated in the filing of four water right applications seeking adjudication of the water rights necessary to initiate the Northern Project. The first three applications, case nos. 86CW401, 86CW402, and 86CW403, were filed on December 31, 1986. Case 86CW401 involves an application for confirmation of appropriative rights of exchange on the waters of the Cache La Poudre and South Platte Rivers. In its application in case 86CW402, Thornton also seeks confirmation of appropriative rights of exchange for an internal ditch exchange on the water in the LCC. Case 86CW403 involves an application for confirmation of new conditional water rights diverting from the Cache La Poudre and South Platte Rivers. The fourth application, case no. 87CW332, was filed on December 31, 1987. In this fourth application, Thornton sought approval to change the use of the water rights it acquired from WSSC from irrigation to municipal purposes, as well as approval of an extensive plan for augmentation. Because these individual applications were all part of the larger Northern Project, they were consolidated for trial before the water court.

Statements of opposition to the four applications were filed by a total of forty-nine parties. Based on pre-trial negotiations and discussions, twelve objectors withdrew their statements of opposition prior to trial.5 In addition, Thornton negotiated stipulations with eighteen objectors, including the state and division engineers, eliminating their ob-*22jectíons to Thornton’s proposed decree. By the time the eases reached trial in the District Court, Water Division No. 1, fewer than ten objectors remained active participants. The trial progressed intermittently from August 7, 1991, to April 15, 1992, occupying fifty-seven days and producing almost 10,000 pages of transcripts and more than 1,300 trial exhibits. Closing arguments were held on October 8,1992.

On August 16, 1993, the trial court issued its Memorandum of Decision. In the MOD, the trial court addressed many of the significant legal issues raised by Thornton’s applications and ultimately concluded that Thornton was entitled to a decree. Following the issuance of the MOD, the parties and the court took part in numerous decree conferences to work out the terms of a final decree. The trial court issued its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, Judgment and Decree (Decree) on February 18, 1994. In the eighty-eight page decree, the trial court granted Thornton’s applications for confirmation of the new conditional appropriative rights with an appropriation date of December 31, 1986, and for the change of use of its WSSC shares to municipal use and the accompanying plan for augmentation.

The court, however, imposed conditions subjecting Thornton’s exercise of the newly decreed rights to numerous terms and conditions designed to lessen the impact of the Northern Project on other water users. According to the court:

Operation of the Plan for Augmentation approved herein, as well as compliance with the terms and conditions imposed herein, will prevent unlawful injury to any vested water right which might otherwise result from the operation of the Thornton Northern Project through its component parts as approved, confirmed, awarded, and decreed herein, including operation of the conditional water rights, appropriative right of exchange, change of water rights, and plan for augmentation.

Decree, ¶ 18, at 29. Among the more significant limitations imposed on Thornton by the decree are: (1) a requirement that Thornton not exceed annual volumetric limitations in its diversion of water under its conditional rights; (2) a requirement that Thornton make certain future showings regarding its need for the claimed water; (3) a prohibition on the use of CBT water for purposes that create benefits for Thornton outside the boundaries of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD); (4) a prohibition on the reuse of Thornton’s pro rata share of transmountain water diverted through the LCC; (5) a requirement that Thornton recharge certain groundwater aquifers for the benefit of downstream well users; and (6) a requirement that Thornton revege-tate farms it will no longer irrigate as a result of its change of water rights to municipal purposes.

Following entry of the decree,6 Thornton filed an appeal in this court challenging certain portions of the decree and conditions imposed therein.7 Several objectors also cross-appealed the trial court’s decision to enter the decree as well as various portions of the decree as entered, and certain other objectors filed briefs in response to Thornton’s appeals.8 We will not include here a *23comprehensive list of the issues raised on appeal, but reserve such identification for our subsequent discussions. Suffice it to say that the issues are numerous and encompass a number of important and previously unresolved questions of Colorado law.

II. Adequacy of Notice

Among the issues raised by certain objectors on cross-appeal is the sufficiency of the notice provided by Thornton’s applications and resumes in this case. Because the issue of notice implicates jurisdictional questions concerning the trial court’s authority to enter portions of the decree, we consider this issue as a threshold matter.

Fort Collins and NCWCD challenge the trial court’s decree of conditional storage and refill rights based on the alleged inadequacy of Thornton’s applications and resumes relating to the Northern Project. In addition, Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) challenges the inclusion of certain water rights among those designated as available replacement waters for augmentation plan purposes in the final decree. Finally, Public Service Company of Colorado (Public Service) asserts that the decree is invalid because Thornton did not provide notice to water users in the basins of origin for certain of its transmountain water rights. The objectors base these challenges on the ground that Thornton’s applications and resumes with respect to these claims provided inadequate notice of the nature and scope of the rights claimed, and that the trial court was therefore without jurisdiction to adjudicate these rights. We affirm the trial court’s decisions with respect to the adjudication of storage and refill rights and the designation of replacement waters as well as the adequacy of the notices as to transmountain water rights.

A. Standing

Before we can evaluate the sufficiency of the notice provided by Thornton’s applications and resumes, we must address the contention by Thornton that the objectors do not have standing to raise this challenge. Thornton argues that a prerequisite for standing to challenge notice in a water proceeding is an allegation of failure to receive actual notice of the claims at issue. In support of its argument, Thornton cites two decisions of this court, Closed Basin Landowners Association v. Rio Grande Water Conservation District, 734 P.2d 627, 635-36 (Colo.1987), and Pueblo West Metropolitan District v. Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, 689 P.2d 594, 602 n. 9 (Colo.1984) (Pueblo I). In these cases, however, we discussed standing in the context of a due process challenge to the constitutionality of the resume notice system as a whole, for which standing requires a finding of actual injury arising from the allegedly defective notice. See People v. Fuller, 791 P.2d 702, 709 (Colo.1990). In the present case, the objectors challenge only the adequacy of notice provided by particular applications and resumes, not the constitutionality of the entire notice system. Accordingly, the limitations on standing set forth in Closed Basin and Pueblo I are inapposite on these facts.

Statutory standing requirements to challenge the sufficiency for notice purposes of particular applications and resumes in water court proceedings are broad. Under section 37—92—302(l)(b), 15 C.R.S. (1990) (emphasis added), “[a]ny person ... who wishes to oppose the application ” may file a statement of opposition with the water clerk. Once a party files such a statement, that party has standing to challenge on appeal the adequacy of published notice to support the judgment of the water court. Pueblo West Metro. Dist. v. Southeastern Colo. Water Conservancy Dist., 717 P.2d 955, 957-58 (Colo.1986) (Pueblo II). In the present ease, all of the objectors who are challenging the sufficiency of Thornton’s applications and re*24sumes previously filed statements of opposition with the water clerk, and thus have standing to appeal the adequacy of published notice to support the judgment of the water court.

B. Statutory and Case Law Standards

Because the objectors have standing to raise this challenge, we now evaluate the adequacy of the notice provided by Thornton’s applications and resumes regarding the nature and scope of the rights claimed by Thornton. To do so, we must first briefly review the applicable notice framework. We then apply this framework to claims for storage and for refill rights and to designation of replacement waters.

1. Statutes

The resume system that governs the provision of notice in water eases is codified in section 37-92-302, 15 C.R.S. (1990 & 1995 Supp.). Initially, any person who desires a determination of a water right or a conditional water right, a determination with respect to a change of water right, approval of a plan for augmentation, or approval of a proposed or existing exchange of water must file with the water clerk a verified application setting forth facts supporting the ruling sought. § 37-92-302(l)(a), 15 C.R.S. (1990). Pursuant to section 37-92-302(2)(a), 15 C.R.S. (1995 Supp.), the water judges of the various divisions have developed standardized application forms for use in this process. Failure to use these standardized forms, however, does not automatically result in the application being considered insufficient. This court has recognized an exception to the use of the standard forms where “strict conformity may be unsuitable, prejudicial, or impose an unreasonable burden.” Closed Basin, 734 P.2d at 635 n. 4 (quoting C.R.C.P. 90).

Not later than the fifteenth of each month, the water clerk prepares a resume of all applications filed in the preceding month. § 37-92-302(3)(a), 15 C.R.S. (1990). Pursuant to section 37-92-302(3)(a), the resume must contain the name and address of the applicant, a description of the water right or conditional water right involved, and a description of the ruling sought. Notification of interested parties is then accomplished not through typical service of process methods but rather through the resume notice procedures unique to the determination of water rights. Gardner v. Enewold, 200 Colo. 221, 224, 614 P.2d 357, 359 (1980). Specifically, the water clerk must publish the resume in a newspaper of general circulation in the affected counties, § 37-92-302(3)(b), and mail a copy of the resume “to each person who the referee has reason to believe would be affected or who has requested the same by submitting his name and address to the water clerk,” § 37-92-302(3)(c). Any person opposing the application may then file a verified statement of opposition. § 37-92-302(l)(b).

2. Case Law—General Standards

“[The] resume notice procedures are calculated to alert all water users on the stream system whose rights may be affected by the application and to provide these persons an opportunity to participate in the water right proceeding and to oppose the application.” Bar 70 Enters., Inc. v. Tosco Corp., 703 P.2d 1297, 1302-03 (Colo.1985). We evaluate compliance with the notice provisions with reference to the underlying purpose of the notice: “to put interested parties to the extent reasonably possible on inquiry notice of the nature, scope, and impact of the proposed diversion.” Closed Basin, 734 P.2d at 634 (emphasis added). Any evaluation, therefore, must take into account the particular facts and circumstances of the case, and must assess the reasonableness of the notice in the context of the “practicalities and peculiarities” of the water project at issue. Id. at 633 (citing Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314-15, 70 S.Ct. 652, 657-58, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950)).

In Monaghan Farms v. City & County of Denver, we provided a general definition of the inquiry notice standard:

Inquiry notice requires sufficient facts to attract the attention of interested persons and prompt a reasonable person to inquire further. The receipt of inquiry notice charges a party with notice of all the facts that a reasonably diligent inquiry would have disclosed. Colburn v. Gilcrest, 60 *25Colo. 92, 94, 151 P. 909, 910 (1915). Consequently, alleged deficiencies invalidate the resume only if the resume taken as a whole is insufficient to inform or put the reader on inquiry of the nature, scope and impact of the proposed diversion.

807 P.2d 9, 15 (Colo.1991); accord Board of County Comm’rs v. Collard, 827 P.2d 546, 552 (Colo.1992). Once the applicant satisfies the initial burden of providing information that would alert a reasonable person to investigate the claims further, the potential objector bears the responsibility of conducting a reasonably diligent inquiry and is charged with all notice that such an inquiry would produce. Monaghan Farms, 807 P.2d at 15. The potential objector must be viewed as a “reasonably prudent party” and cannot establish the lack of adequate notice if on the basis of the published resume, he or she should have anticipated that the disputed rights might be at issue. City of Thornton v. City of Ft. Collins, 830 P.2d 915, 923 (Colo. 1992).

C. Notice—Storage Rights

We address first the adequacy of the notice concerning Thornton’s claims to storage rights. The challenged storage rights were adjudicated pursuant to Thornton’s applications for confirmation of conditional appropri-ative rights of exchange in the Cache La Poudre and South Platte Rivers (case 86CW401) and in the Larimer County Canal in the WSSC distribution system (case 86CW402), and for confirmation of conditional direct diversion rights in the Cache La Poudre and South Platte Rivers (case 86CW403). Thornton’s applications in all three cases contained similar descriptions of the intended uses of the claimed water. Thornton included the following representative description in the application in case 86CW403:

Uses of water. All municipal uses, including but not limited to irrigation, including agricultural irrigation, domestic use, recreational use, aesthetic use, use by direct flow, by storeage [sic],19-1 by exchange, by augmentation, use for augmentation of other uses and any other use lawfully made by the City of Thornton.

(Emphasis added.) The resumes published and circulated by the water clerk relating to these applications reproduced the applications themselves, and the description of the potential uses of the claimed water listed in each resume was identical to the description printed in the corresponding application. The applications and resumes did not otherwise mention claims for storage rights.

In the final decree, the trial court adjudicated to Thornton conditional storage and refill rights in nineteen lakes and reservoirs.10 The objectors argue that Thornton’s applications and resumes provided insufficient notice of Thornton’s claims for storage rights and that without adequate notice the water court had no jurisdiction to decree these rights. The trial court rejected the objectors’ arguments. Specifically, in the Memorandum of Decision, the trial court stated that it was “satisfied that it has jurisdiction to grant a decree in this matter and that notice requirements have been met.” MOD at 41. In the final decree, the court held that “the storage provided for in this decree in connection with Thornton’s appropriations is incidental to, a part of, and implicit in a municipal water system and the municipal uses for which the appropriations were made. Adequate notice of the storage of the water so appropriated, as provided in this decree, was given by the application and resume herein.” Decree, ¶ 12.4, at 13. The court expressly held that Thornton’s applications and resumes were “adequate to give inquiry notice regarding claims for water storage and for refill consistent with and *26implicit in the normal operation of a municipal water system.” Decree, ¶ 28.B, at 38; see also id. ¶ 27, at 33.

We have applied the inquiry notice standard in a number of recent cases. With the exception of cases presenting circumstances that suggested the misleading inclusion or omission of material facts, we have consistently accepted a broad definition of inquiry notice and found adequate the resume notice provided by the applicant. See, e.g., Thornton v. Fort Collins, 830 P.2d at 923 (resume that contained a general reference to the source for claimed water right held sufficient to notify potential objectors of specific diversions from that source); Collard, 827 P.2d at 552-53 (resume notice adequate where application revealed that substantial flows would be appropriated but did not clearly specify the type of right sought); Closed Basin, 734 P.2d at 635 (resume for a water salvage project that notified parties of amount of appropriation and effect on level of water table in a defined area held sufficient, even though specific well sites were not identified); Pueblo II, 717 P.2d at 957-58 (resume of application for change of point of diversion for a ditch right held sufficient to describe the water right involved despite failure to mention two wells that had been used as undecreed nearby alternate points of diversion); Pueblo I, 689 P.2d at 601-02 (resume of application to make conditional storage decrees absolute provided adequate notice that the source of the water to be stored was western slope streams despite the absence of any specific reference because the resume made reference to prior conditional decrees that identified the source of the water); see also Monaghan Farms, 807 P.2d at 15-16 (challenged resume held to provide adequate notice); State Eng’r v. Smith Cattle, Inc., 780 P.2d 546, 551-52 (Colo.1989) (same).

The objectors contend that Thornton’s applications are misleading because they follow the format of a direct flow application and omit any details of the extent of its storage claims. We disagree. In those cases in which we have held notice to be inadequate, the resumes are characterized by the complete absence of material information concerning the disputed water rights. For example, in Stonewall Estates v. CF & I Steel Corp., 197 Colo. 255, 592 P.2d 1318 (1979), the applicant’s resume of an application for a nontributary water right failed to mention the asserted nontributary nature of the water. We held the resume to be defective because in the absence of any indication that the water was claimed to be nontributary, and thus to be administered outside of the priority system for tributary water that protects senior appropriators, such appropriators had no cause to anticipate injury from the claims. Id. at 258, 592 P.2d at 1320. Similarly, in Danielson v. Jones, 698 P.2d 240, 246 (Colo.1985), we held that a resume that described an application as requesting a determination of a water right for “domestic, stock, and irrigation purposes” but omitted any reference to storage did not provide notice that the applicant also sought judicial recognition of fish culture and storage uses. Id.

The present situation more closely resembles those eases in which we upheld resume notices than the cases in which notices were deemed insufficient. Unlike the applicants in Danielson and Stonewall, Thornton did not omit all reference to the nature of the disputed right in its applications. The manners of use claimed included “use by direct flow, by storage, by exchange, by augmentation,” thereby giving notice of the distinct and separate claim for storage rights. Given the use of the word “storage” in the resume and the expansive nature of Thornton’s water project, neither the lack of details concerning the claimed storage rights nor the use of a direct flow application format was so misleading as to render the resulting decree void. See Pueblo I, 689 P.2d at 602 (sufficiency of resume notice upheld absent a “serious omission of material information”).

The inquiry notice evaluation requires consideration of the facts surrounding each individual application and resume. In the present case, the factual circumstances support a holding that Thornton’s reference in its applications and resumes to use of its proposed exchanges and diversions “by storage” was sufficient to trigger an inquiry by the objectors into the extent of the storage rights claimed by Thornton. First, as noted *27above, Thornton’s failure to use a standard application form designed for storage rights is not dispositive of the notice issue. Closed Basin, 734 P.2d at 635 n. 4. Second, given the enormous size of the water project proposed by Thornton and the extensive amounts of water claimed in or affected by its applications, as apparent from the resumes, it is inconceivable that a “reasonably prudent” potential objector would fail to anticipate that storage rights would be included in the project.11 Once alerted by the reference to storage and the scope of the project, potential objectors bore the responsibility to inquire further into the claims being made by Thornton. See Collard, 827 P.2d at 552 (published resume seeking to appropriate substantial flows of identified streams “would raise a red flag (inquiry notice) to any person interested in water in the subject streams that significant water rights were being proposed in the areas described”) (quoting water court conclusion). As the trial court noted, an applicant is not required to predict in the application and resume the exact nature of the water rights that will ultimately be decreed. Therefore, although Thornton’s reference to its storage claims contained no specific, detail, and perhaps could even be described as more general than would be permissible in most situations, it was sufficient under the circumstances of the present ease to provide the objectors with inquiry notice of the storage rights ultimately decreed by the trial court. We therefore affirm the trial court’s adjudication of storage rights in the final decree.12

D. Notice—Refíll Rights

In addition to storage rights in nineteen identified lakes and reservoirs, the trial court also decreed to Thornton the right to fill and refill these storage structures subject to certain volumetric limitations imposed by the court. The objectors contend that even *28if Thornton provided adequate notice of its storage claims, the applications and resumes did not provide adequate notice of any refill claims. For the reasons discussed below, we disagree with the objectors’ argument and affirm the trial court’s decree of refill rights to Thornton.

We again evaluate the adequacy of the notice provided by Thornton’s applications and resumes under the inquiry notice standard. E.g., Monaghan Farms, 807 P.2d at 15. As discussed above, see supra p. 25, we must consider the practicalities and peculiarities of the individual case in our evaluation. Closed Basin, 734 P.2d at 633. Examining the absence of reference to refill claims in Thornton’s applications and resumes in the context of the expansive nature of Thornton’s water project, we conclude that Thornton’s reference to “use ... by storage” provided sufficient inquiry notice of such claims. The very generality of the claims suggested the need to inquire into the extent of the storage and the manner in which it is to be accomplished.

As we discussed in section 11(C), supra, the broad scope of the project reflected in Thornton’s applications and the amount of water involved, together with the inclusion of “storage” among the designated uses, should have alerted potential objectors to the possibility that Thornton would require storage. Once alerted to potential storage claims, interested parties are required to conduct a reasonable inquiry into these claims and are charged with all knowledge that would result from such an inquiry. Monaghan Farms, 807 P.2d at 15. In the context of such a large water project, it is within the scope of the required reasonable inquiry into storage claims to investigate the possibility that refill rights are also claimed.13 Accordingly, the notice provided by Thornton’s applications and resumes satisfied the inquiry notice standard, and we affirm the trial court’s adjudication of refill rights in the final decree.

E. Notice—Designation of Replacement Waters

Objector Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) challenges the adequacy of the notice provided by Thornton’s application and resume. However, PRPA focuses on the trial court’s designation of replacement water rights available for use in Thornton’s proposed plan for augmentation (case 87CW322). In its application in case 87CW332, which encompassed both the augmentation plan and proposed changes of use of certain water rights, Thornton identified the source of potential replacement waters as WSSC waters or “other sources lawfully available for such use.” The resume repeats verbatim the description of replacement waters in Thornton’s application.

In the final decree, the trial court provided a seventeen-page listing of the waters allowed for replacement use, which includes waters not specifically listed on Thornton’s application or resume. PRPA argues that Thornton failed to comply with the notice requirements for a plan for augmentation and that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction by decreeing the right to use waters for replacement purposes that were not listed in the application or resume. We disagree and affirm the trial court’s identification of *29sources for potential use as replacement waters.

To evaluate the adequacy of the notice provided by Thornton’s application and resume for its plan for augmentation, we again apply the inquiry notice standard. Thornton argues that this court’s decision in City & County of Denver v. City of Englewood, 826 P.2d 1266 (Colo.1992) (Englewood), which presented a situation factually similar to this ease, should control our determination in the present case. We agree.

In Englewood, Denver sought the adjudication of conditional water rights to divert by exchange from the South Platte River. Id. at 1268-69. The statement of claim and resulting decree specified the uses to include “effectuating an exchange or transfer of water by the use of any public stream or its water.” Id. at 1272. In a subsequent application to make portions of these conditional rights absolute based on the diversion of South Platte waters and their replacement with transmountain waters imported from the Colorado River, the trial court ruled against Denver and held that Denver’s statement of claim in the earlier proceeding had provided insufficient notice of the use of non-South Platte waters for replacement purposes and that the decree did not authorize such a source of replacement water. Id. at 1271.

On appeal, this court reversed the determination of the trial court. We noted that both Denver’s statement of claim and the conditional decree granted by th