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<br />projects or from the reserVOIr rehabilitation bill proposed by Representative <br />Salazar. <br /> <br />Issue No.2: Additional information is needed discussing the decreed purposes for the <br />reservoir and enlargement. Is augmentation and municipal and industrial use a decreed <br />purpose? How will issues associated with augmentation above the Del Norte gauge be <br />handled? The current application does not indicate that legal and technical resources will <br />be used to address these critical questions. <br /> <br />ResDonse: The District's water rights are decreed for storage and irrigation use <br />within the San Luis Valley Irrigation District. The San Luis Valley Water <br />Conservancy District (Conservancy District) stores trans-mountain water in the <br />Rio Grande Reservoir, for which the use has been changed to storage and use in <br />its augmentation program. Such uses include, but are not limited to, domestic, <br />municipal, and industrial uses within the Conservancy District's boundaries. The <br />Conservancy District also has the decreed right to exchange its in-basin water <br />rights into Rio Grande Reservoir for use in its augmentation program. At present, <br />the Conservancy District's in-basin water rights all derive from irrigation water <br />rights historically diverted and utilized above the Del Norte gauge. Storage of <br />water in the Reservoir for other purposes, augmentation, commercial, municipal, <br />recreational/environmental releases, compact purposes etc., does not threaten or <br />impact the District's storage decrees. Those other uses obtain have or will obtain <br />decrees or administrative approval from the State Engineer that allow them to <br />store their water in Rio Grande Reservoir with the permission of the Reservoir <br />owner - the District. <br /> <br />The Reservoir was built and approved pursuant to a permit granted by the United <br />States under what is commonly referred to as the 1891 Act right-of-way. That <br />Act provided for the construction of reservoirs for irrigation purposes on lands of <br />the United States. It was amended in 1898 to allow the storage of water for other <br />public purposes so long as the primary purpose for storage remained irrigation. <br />While we believe that the multiple uses of Rio Grande Reservoir would fall <br />within the conditions of the 1891 Act right-of-way as amended in 1898, the Forest <br />Service has raised some concerns about the effect of multiple use on the status of <br />the District's right of way, and the possible need for and effect of a Special Use <br />Permit to cover an enlargement. <br /> <br />As part of Tasl( 4, the District intends to scrutinize the legal ramifications of <br />storing water in the Reservoir for non-irrigation purposes. If this is to occur in a <br />rehabilitated but not enlarged Reservoir it may require the District to provide <br />some space that is now available to the District to store water for irrigation. Of <br />course, that would be a decision that would be made by the District and <br />negotiated with other stal(eholders. If storage for multiple use purposes occurs in <br />an enlarged reservoir, the legal effects of enlargement on the District's existing <br />rights-of-way and the effects of a Special Use Permit on operation of the <br />Reservoir will be evaluated during this Phase 2 portion of the study. <br />