WSP10175

• File Number: 8141.200
• Description: Fryingpan-Arkansas Project - Mailing Lists and Correspondence
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1975
• Author: various
• Title: Fourteen Statements History of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project and Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Project Overview

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aquifier because there now is unde~ground several hundred

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thousand acrefeet of water which can be utilized in drought

years to produce crops which could not otherwise be grown.

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The oquifer of the Arkansas River has increosed as the devel-

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opment by irrigation occurred. Hi~tarically, first the ditch

was built which fanned out the woter frem the river and in

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effect widened the alluvial fon. The next mojor aevelopment

were the big reservoirs but these were oversold and the ditches

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and the reservoirs just were not odequate for the job. Then

along came the concept of Federal reclamation and this relates

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to the importing of water and, .finally, of course, l:;;,mes the

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pump. Now, the problem then is how do you blend in 0 junior

water right of a pump with the senior water right of 0 ditch?

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To this date the only woy that it's been done is by the State
Engineer shutting his eyes and ignoring the problem, He puts

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the ditches west of Pueblo on the priority system and ea~t of

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Pueblo he lets the pumps run. This is an Oddity and an anomcly

which probably couldn't exist except for the fact that many of

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the irrigators own both ditches an~ pumps so they are not going
to bite off their nose to spite their foce. This is not true

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west of Pueblo and yet the ditches' east of Pueblo, particularly

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in the Buena Vista-Salida area, know that they would have a

very, very expensive litigation th~t they cannot afford cnd

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consequently the problem has been placed in the lap of .the

legiSlature and the legislature is trying to do what they

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con to solve the prOblem, but the simple truth of the matter

is that Colorado is no longer a rural area. Basically, it's
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