Developer tears up irrigation ditch to accommodate new home.

In 2009 we purchased a home in Golden, Colorado with an acre of land and water rights for from a small irrigation ditch running across the front yard.    

In the past few years nearby properties have been developed with seemingly little regard for our irrigation ditch or our concerns as ditch owners. In 2018 over 700 feet of our surface ditch was buried without notice in the heat of July.  During this construction process our irrigation water seemed to be in a constant state of change. The water was typically dirty when flowing, was frequently stopped, and flooded our property several times. Our property boarders the Rocky Mountain Ditch which is owned by Molson Coors, and when speaking with a manager of this ditch about issues we had with developers destroying our ditch and flooding our property he explained that he had a contact at Jefferson County he can call and they will respond immediately.  Unfortunately, our ditch is much smaller and carries water for only 3 properties so it seems Colorado water law applies differently.  Furthermore, our ditch is likely over 100 years old and was never recorded in Jefferson County. So far the surrounding developers have had no issue obtaining building permits for construction encroaching upon our prescriptive irrigation ditch easement by simply dismissing our irrigation ditch altogether.  Today when I drove past the property I noticed a backhoe digging a trench tough our irrigation ditch.  The neighbor recently purchased a vacant lot which boarders our irrigation ditch, but does not have water rights to the ditch.   Today contractors from the property destroyed a portion of our irrigation ditch to begin installation of a new sewer line.   In the past Jefferson County has simply dismissed or ignored our concerns.  Today I reached out to Jefferson County Transportation and Engineering to ask them for details about this project, but there seem to be no permits or knowledge about this project in their Right of Way.  Not sure what's going on, but it sure seems fishy.  Based on recent experience I'm just hoping we can get our irrigation ditch back up and running by Spring!