sounds to me like the 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders have been stealing someone else’s water ...
In Colorado, all water (both surface and underground) is privately owned, and water ownership is equivalent to real estate ownership. Legally established seniority of ownership is sacrosanct: no Colorado farmer (or anyone else for that matter) would even think about stealing someone else’s water because the penalties are so severe ...
And most of the land in Colorado is own by the Federal Government.