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<br /> <br />o <br />:-:-:> <br />W <br />C.> <br />to <br />o <br /> <br /> <br />LETTER OF TRANSMI'fT AL <br /> <br />LEEDS, HILL & JEWETT, <br />CONSULTING ENGINEERS, <br />Los Angeles, Calif., October 31, 1,953. <br /> <br />COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD, <br />212' State Office Building, Denver, Colo. <br />GENT1EMEN: You directed us by contract dated May 18, 1953, pur- <br />suant toiHouse Document 457, 1st session, 39th General Assembly of <br />the State of Colorado, to make a study of the water resources available <br />lrom surface supplies in that part of Colorado which lies west of the <br />Continental Divide, and a study of the present and potential uses <br />-thereof tp the full extent necessary to a unified and harmonious de- <br />velopme4t of those waters for beneficial use in Colorado to the fullest <br />-extent pc!ssible under the law, including the law created by compacts <br />affecting :the use of said water. The studies so to be made were to <br />include ap,alyses of the extent to which water may be transferred <br />from one watershed to another within the State without injury to the <br />potential \3conomic development of the natural watershed from which <br />water might be diverted for the development of another watershed. <br />We wisb. to express our appreciation of the cooperation extended by <br />the director and his staff and by the engineering research committee <br />which has!. been advising the Colorado Conference Committee. We <br />particularl\)>: wish to thank the Bureau of Reclamation for making <br />.data avail~ble in advance of completion of a number of its reports. <br />We had ,anticipated accepting the value of 3,855,375 acre-feet per <br />year as tlie amount by which Colorado could deplete the flow of <br />'Colorado E.iver at Lee Ferry under the provisions of the law created <br />by compac~s, but we found it necessary to review previous studies <br />with considera,tion to more recent records of streamflow. <br />We concl).Ide, from analysis of all available data and from our own <br />independent studies, that: <br />1. All of the 7,500,000 acre-feet of water per annum apportioned to <br />the Upper :aasin by the Colorado River Compact may not actually be <br />,available for use because of the requirement that 75 million acre-feet <br />be delivered,ll.t Lee Ferry during each consecutive 10-year period. <br />2. Compliance with this provision and limiting the carryover in <br /><cyclic storag~ to the 22 years from 1930 to 1952 would have required <br />that reservoks of 21 million acre-feet capacity had been available in <br />1927 for cyclic regulation and that the aggregate depletion in the upper <br />basin be no more than 6,200,000 acre-feet per year. <br />3. The total of all depletions at sites of use in Colorado of the flow <br />of Colorado River and its tributaries may thus be limited to 3,100,000 <br />:acre-feet per iyear. <br />4. Depleti<ins in Colorado under present conditions aggregate <br />practically 1,450,000 acre-feet per year. <br /> <br /> <br />.< <br /> <br />~ " <br /> <br /> <br />VII <br /> <br />- <br />