Priority date
Also called: seniority date
The date a water right's claim was established, which sets its rank in the queue when supply is short.
The priority date is the single most consequential attribute of a water right. An 1883 right and a 1974 right on the same stretch of river are not comparable assets: in a dry year the 1883 right is fully satisfied while the 1974 right may be shut off entirely.
Priority dates in the West run back to the 1860s and 1870s in the earliest-settled basins. Because seniority is what survives scarcity, and scarcity is increasing, the spread between senior and junior pricing has widened considerably — which makes accurate priority data the foundation of any valuation.
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