This article reviews the history of Colorado law governing nondesignated, nontributary groundwater, that is, groundwater that has no or only minor effects on surface streams and outside of designated areas. Much of this nondesignated, nontributary water lies in the Denver Basin, available to the Denver/Colorado Springs metropolitan area. In 1978, a lawyer filed for rights to this water. The Colorado Supreme Court denied the lawyer rights to the water, but showed that the rights were essentially in limbo. In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the state Senate passed a bill that gave the water courts jurisdiction over the water and affirmed all decisions the water courts had made in the past regarding the water. The bulk of the article describes the legislation and its affects on the water rights market and optimum use of the water.