Many people in Colorado are facing a problem you’d never expect to find in the arid West: too much water.

In places along the South Platte River, which flows from the Rockies through Denver to the northeast, basements are flooding, sewage systems are being damaged, and rising water is leaving salt in farmers’ fields, robbing them of productivity. The situation is vexing and has been the subject of numerous meetings of state officials, farmers, and water experts. But no lasting solution has been found. The real question is whether the state’s water law that goes back to the Gold Rush era is flexible enough to deal with the issue.