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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />.. <br /> <br />II. BACKGROUND <br /> <br />The most senior water rights serving the Grand Valley <br />(both sides of the Colorado River from just above Palisade to <br />near the utah border) have appropriations dating from the <br />1880's. Private citizens, mutual ditch companies, and <br />irrigation districts constructed a network of diversions, <br />canals, and laterals to serve the area long before the United <br />states Reclamation Service built the Grand Valley Project (See <br />Figure 1). These early water rights, together with those <br />rights held by the United States for the Project, make up what <br />is known as the "Cameo call" on the Colorado River. <br /> <br />A. Grand Vallev Diversions and the "Cameo Call" <br /> <br />This accumulation of water rights just below the <br />U.S.G.S. gaging station on the Colorado River near Cameo <br />serves as a control on future water development upstream <br />throughout the basin. The "Cameo demand" must be examined in <br />any assessment of water availability upstream, and is of <br />primary concern when determining amounts of stored water <br />required for replacement for transmountain diversions or <br />in-basin municipal expansion. The Cameo group of absolute <br />rights has a variety of priority dates and diversion amounts, <br />reflecting a long history of project consolidation. For the <br />purposes of this report, only diversion capacities are used. <br />No attempt is made to reconcile the face values of water <br />rights with diversion records, or to address winter-season <br />operations of individual decreed rights. <br /> <br />There are three major organizations supplying <br />irrigation water from the Colorado River to the Grand Valley <br />area (See figure 2): <br /> <br />1) GRAND VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY (GVIC) <br />- Private irrigation company serving approximately <br />40,000 acres north of the Colorado River. <br />- Gravity system, no storage. <br />- Holds the most senior right in the Cameo group (520 <br />cfs). <br />- Holds the most junior right in the Cameo group (120 <br />cfs). <br />- Relies heavily on Green Mountain Reservoir storage to <br />supply water to l20-cfs right. <br /> <br />2) ORCHARD MESA IRRIGATION DISTRICT (OMID) <br />- Irrigation district serving approximately 9,000 acres <br />south of the Colorado River. <br />- Primarily a pumped system, no storage. <br />- Uses hydraulic turbine pumps to lift irrigation water <br />to service area. <br /> <br />- 3 - <br />