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<br />J <br /> <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />Ii) <br />;.; ~, <br />'.~-"4 <br />""" <br />'~) <br /> <br />r;> <br /> <br />Diversion decrees along both rivers are based on the daily volume of water in <br />the rivers; as the volume of water increases more decrees can be met; as the <br />water volume decreases, junior appropriations are, in reverse order of decree <br />priority, not permitted to divert. <br /> <br />On the basis of the State F..ngineer's estimate of anticipated runoff, it was <br />determined that during the period of peak flows'approximately 33% of the Rio <br />Grande and approximately 35% of the Conejos River would need to be delivered to <br />New Mexico to comply wi th the Compact requirements. Both rivers were administered, <br />in relation to permissible diversions, as though the Compact were the number one <br />decree with all other decrees permitted to divert in order of decree priority, <br />only to the limit of the volume of water in the rivers in excess of the water <br />required by the Compact schedules. <br /> <br />STA TEMENT OF TlfE PROBLEM <br /> <br />The effect of Colorado's decision to administer the rivers in the manner <br />described above has been the denial of water to junior appropriators who, <br />in the absence of administration in this manner, may have been permitted to <br />divert. This is water which had been decreed to them by the State of Colorado <br />prior to ratification of tho Compact, water which had not been denied them <br />subsequent to the ratification of the Compact, and water which, because of snow- <br />pack conditions, predicted runoff and lack of knowledge concerning the adminis- <br />trative decisions of the State Engineer and the consequences thereof, the junior <br />appropriators believed would be available for their use. Such belief also <br />stemmed from the long held supposition, shared by most water users in the San <br />Luis Valley, that such water should be available to supply even jrinior decrees. <br />This belief results from representations firmly made to tbem at the time the <br />Compact was entered into. The representation was that administration of the <br />schedules contained therein would not adversely affect their full utilization of <br />the river to the extent of the water rights decreed up until that time. <br /> <br />Individual appropriators make management decisions and plan their operations <br />according to the volume of water they anticipate to be available. Generally <br />speaking, throughout the San Luis Valley, meadow lands require water throughout <br />the growing season except during two to three weeks just preceeding ~nd during <br />haying, alfalfa requires water from May to November, cereal grains are watered <br />from May to mid-July or August first, and potatoes are irrigated from mid-June <br />to September first. <br /> <br />Most of the farmers who are not adjacent to the rivers have constructed pump <br />wells for use in years of low river flow and for irrigation after the river <br />flow drops below the volume at which they can divert. Some of the water is <br />pumped from the uppermost aquifer which is recharged at least in part and <br />perhaps primarily by diversions from the rivers. In the area of the San <br />Luis Valley where supplemental water is derived from shallow wells when <br />diversions are not permissible, the aquifer is not recharged but the demand <br />for water from the aquifer is increased. Heretofore the situation has been <br />