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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Mr. Travis Smith, Superintendent <br />October 16, 2003 <br />Page 11 <br /> <br />Company must divert Priorities No. 361-A and 361-8 for 10 cumulative days or 8 consecutive <br />days prior to the beginning of direct flow storage, must forego storage of 13 percent of the <br />storable flow, and are subject to an 11 percent charge for conveyance losses when the water is <br />released from storage. A maximum of 8,700 acre-feet may be stored per water year. <br /> <br />Tables 8 and 9 show the additional water that would have been available to the Rio <br />Grande Canal Water Users Association and Commonwealth Irrigation Company for direct flow <br />storage during the 1946-2002 irrigation seasons. As shown in Table 8, the additional water <br />available to the Rio Grande Canal Water Users averaged 23,297 acre-feet annually and ranged <br />from none in 1977 2002 to 72,065 in 1965. In Table 9;the additional water available to the <br />, <br /> <br />Commonwealth Irrigation Company averaged 4,433 acre-feet annually. Amounts ranged from <br />none in four different years, most recently in 2002, to the maximum allowed of 8,700 acre-feet in <br />eight years, with the most recent occurrence in 1995. <br /> <br />CONCLUSIONS <br /> <br />1. <br /> <br />We believe that storage in an enlargement of Rio Grande Reservoir under a post- <br />compact water right would be limited to years when either Project Storage in Elephant <br />Butte and Caballo Reservoirs spills or when Colorado achieves an annual credit of <br />150,000 acre-feet or more. Historically, during water years 1946-2002, Project Storage <br />spilled in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1995, and Colorado did not achieve an annual credit of <br />150,000 acre-feet or more. Consequently, water would have been available for storage <br />in a post-compact reservoir only in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1995 and the amounts, which <br />are shown in Table 4, ranged from 30,850 acre-feet in 1995 to 73,082 acre-feet in 1985. <br /> <br />2. <br /> <br />We believe there would be benefits to Colorado and the Rio Grande water users in <br />having additional reservoir capacity available for storage of "Compact water". <br />Specifically, we believe additional reservoir capacity would facilitate storage of Compact <br />water to reduce changes in curtailments during the course of the irrigation season, the <br />storage of Compact water during years of high flow to reduce the losses delivering the <br />Compact water to the State Line, and storage of Rio Grande credit water, which would <br />reduce evaporation losses and eliminate the chance of spill from Project Storage. <br />