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373B RUED! DAM AND RESERVOIR, COLO. 45 I' sion of water from the river a short distance below Rifle. The cana.! . and la~eral system was never entirely completed and after a few ~'ears' operatIOn of t.he canal was dlscontlIlued because of penodlc faIlures and high maintenance costs. About 1,600 acres of lands on the sout.h side of the river are noW irrigated from the Bluestone ditch, which was constructed in 18D5 and heads on thc river about 6 miles downstream from t11e town of Grand Valley. A dumped-rock diversion structure at the head of the ditch is frequently made inoperative by floods and sedimentation. About 760 IlCres including lands on bot.h sides of the river now receive p.artial supplies of irrigation water from small tributaries of the rIver. Nearly all of the lands of the Bluestone area lie within the basin of the potential De Beque Reservoir. The De Beque project has been investigatecl in reconnaissance scope by the Bureau of Reclamation but no lI1vestigations for preparatjon of a feasibility report have been scheduled. The plan for development of the Blnestone area as presented in the Cliffs- Divide report involves reconstruction and extension of the Havemeyer canal and rehabilitation of the Blnestone ditch. The plan contemplated enlarl(ement of the service area of the abandoned Havemeyer canal through extension of the canal and construction of a ptunplllg plant and a major lateral. A wt,,1 of 11,570 irrigable o.cres1 lIlcluding 0,213 acres of fnll-service lands were considered ir- rigable under the plan. The to(.,1I productive ncreage after deduct- ing 6 pereent from the irrigable acreage to allow for nonproductive use of lands was estimated at 10,875 acres, The Havemeyer canal was planned to Ill","e ll. length of about 30 miles and an initial capacity of 215 second-feet. Some of the water / diverted by the canal was w be siphoned across the Colorado River for delivery to lands a,bove the Bluestone ditch by a lateral :30 miles in length. It was est.imated that the presently irrigated htnds to be supplied additional water under the de,.elopment noW' experience a.nnual water shortages equal to :30 percent of their diversion requirements. The shortages are due to operational problems on the Bluestone ditch and the low flows of small tributaries of the Colorado River that nre now used 011 other irrigated lands within the area. The. annual diversion requirempnt, for project lands was est.imated to a.verage 4.80 acre-feet of water per product.ive acre over an averaO"e ~l'owinl( season extendinl( from May 10 to October fl.. Records ~i' Colorado River rnnoff indicated that the flows of the river would al- ways be physically adequate to meet water requirements of the Blue- stone develo~m1~nt... l\.fuch of t~1e.run~ff, however, i.s now used for downstream liTIgatIOn under eXlst,mg rights and at tllnes during the late Sllmmer months there is no excess flow in t.he river. Irrig-ation water rig-hts for the Bluestone ditch total .'\6 second-feet. DiverSions through the ditch have apparently neser been restrieted by prior rights. An irrigation water right in the amount of 200 I second-feet was adjudic<tted :fbi' the Hayemeyer (Wilcox) ditch under ! an apprOj,rlat,lon d<tte of September 1, IDOL In the Cliffs-Divide ~ f inve.stIgatlOn it was assllmed that the I-Iavemeyer right wnsyet le_O"nlly l~ valid even though the ditch has been abandoned for about 50 '~ars, ,. .