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<br /> <br />1891 <br /> <br />occur in years when John Martin Reservoir would spill and, therefore, would not <br />reduce the usable water available to downstream users. Further, these deple- <br />tions during John Martin spills were included in annual averages; therefor~, the <br />annual average usable enhancement was somewhat larger than the 300 acre-feet per <br />year shown, under historic operation. <br /> <br />Both the State of. Kansas and the Arkansas River Compact Administration based <br />thei rapprova 1 of the Tri n i dad Project on the 1961 and 1964 Studi es and the 1964 <br />Irrigation Report. In our opinion, it is rather late for Kansas to change their <br />position and insist that the Trinidad Project be operated to prevent depletions <br />on anannua 1 bas is, particu 1 ar ly cons i deri ng the total absence of evi dence that <br />the Kansas water users will suffer a damage from project operations as con- <br />templated in these reports and in House Document 325. It is our conclusion that <br />eva 1 uat i on of project operati on and proposals for amendments to the Ope rat i ng <br />Principle should continue to be based on the average annual impacts, provided <br />that there is not a general trend of depletion to the inflow to John Martin <br />Reservoir during dry years. <br /> <br />The studies run on the operation during the 1979-84 review period do not provide <br />a sound basis for assessing the future impacts that would be caused by transfer <br />of water out of the Model Right and storage of winter water under the direct <br />flow rights. These studies are also not useful for evaluating proposed amend- <br />ments to the Operating Principles because the full project acreage was not <br />i rri gated duri ng the revi ew period, these studi es are not representati ve of <br />expected future conditions. Since the studies on the review period do not com- <br />pare actual operat i on to a "without proj ect" cond i t i on, they cannot be used to <br />determine what, if any, injury the Project may have on downstream water users. <br />The studies run over the 1925-57 period do provide a sound basis for assessing <br />future impacts and evaluating proposed amendments. <br /> <br />Kansas has objected to the use of the 1925-57 studies for this review., <br />Considering that the 1979-84 review period is not representive of future <br />conditions and therefore not useful for .developing amendments to the <br />Operating Principles and further considering ~he "...and the Principles <br />amended as necessary" phrase in Kansas Condition 4, Kansas' objection seems <br />unwarranted. The Kansas objecti on also confl i cts with the comment by Davi d <br />L. Pope, Kansas Ch i ef Engi neer and Di rector of Di vi s i on of Water Resources, <br />made in the 'first paragraph on page 6 of his February 28, 1986 letter to <br />Raymond H. Willms that "an appropriate analysis would be to apply the <br />actual operating practices, as documented above, to the 1925-1957 study <br />peri od and compare the resu lts of thi sana lys is to the ori gi na 1 ope rat i on <br />studies." <br /> <br />The array of studies run on the 1925-57 period show the impacts of the <br />practices of transferring water out of the Model Right and storing winter <br />water under the direct flow rights. The studies also show the impacts of <br />various levels of over irrigation, project operation with a 39,000 acre- <br />foot joint-use pool (instead of the 19,500 acre-foot pool used in the <br />1961-64 studies) and several levels of bypass to Ninemile and Highland. <br />The studies show the impacts of individual practices and conditions and <br />various combinations of practices and conditions. A description of the <br />various studies was displayed earlier in this section on pages 17 through <br />20, and the results are shown in Table 5 and Table 6. <br /> <br />Tables 5 <br />studied, <br /> <br />and <br />the <br /> <br />6 show that under most of the <br />inflow to John Martin Reservoir is <br /> <br />practices and conditions <br />larger than that which <br /> <br />28 <br />