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<br />Now we are going from large to small. (slide) This is a moderate-sized diversion, (slide) this is a smaller one and (slide)
<br />that is a pretty small one indeed.
<br />
<br />Obviously it takes a complicated establishment to manage this water, since I told you that every cubic foot of water is
<br />accounted for; is owed to someone. Someone, somewhere, has to manage this. So the question is, how does that get
<br />done? Fll'St, all of this water has been allocated by date based on the time that a court of law made a decision that an
<br />individual ought to have the rights to use that water. You might be interested to know that the fIrst court-adjudicated
<br />date on the Arkansas is the first of April, 1861, and it allocates seven feet of water to the Pueblo Water Works--that's
<br />Alan Hamel's seven cubic feet of water. The latest is the 10th of February, 1939, and that doesn't allocate water to
<br />anyone but does legally permit storage in certain reservoirs. The biggest user of water is the Fort Lyon Ditch, which is
<br />authorized 900 cubic feet of water per second, and, its fll'st right is April, 1884, which means that a lot of people
<br />between 1861 and 1884 have rights to use the water prior to the time Fort Lyon gets any of it. The smallest user is Johns
<br />Manville, which has an 1890 right authorizing them to 3/10 of 1 cubic foot per second. Now, if you really want to know
<br />who has what rights, you would have to look at this chart. And, as you can see, over on the right and left columns there
<br />are dates going from 1861 all the way up to 1939. In the middle across the top are the users, and the amount they are
<br />authorized to use is in the center of that column. I can make it eve easier on you by showing you a comer of that chart.
<br />(slide) So, over in this column are the dates, up across the top are the people who are authorized to use the water and
<br />the amounts of water they are authorized to use. Look here. This one, the Canyon City Mill, is authorized 19 cubic feet
<br />in 1863 and another 3.5 cubic feet in 1864.
<br />
<br />Now that's pretty complicated. and I'm glad I'm not the guy that has to say, "You can have a bucketful, you get a
<br />wheelbarrow full, you can have all you want," and so on down the river, especially to the independent farmers who don't
<br />take these types of decisions lying down. But there is, in fact, as you might have suspected, a means by which this is
<br />indeed controlled. As I showed you, there are a number of districts. Each of these districts appoints a district manager.
<br />He has at his disposal some automated capabilities. This slide shows the automated capabilities in the river. At more
<br />than 80 spots in the river, there are data collection platforms that measure the velocity and flow of the water and can
<br />measure ph and certain other elements as well. All of the 80-plus spots measure the volume; only some of them measure
<br />the other elements. These measurements are broadcast by these stations to a satellite. The message comes back to the
<br />processing station in West Virginia, goes to the computer, is processed, then back up to another satellite and, finally,
<br />back down to receivers, one of which is probably sitting on the desk in the study of the District Manager of District 14.
<br />These satellites update his data every four hours. And, if he wants, he can produce a chart like this (slide). This chart
<br />shows the report from every station, all the numbers involved from every station and the time of the report so that the
<br />District Manager will know how much water is where and when.
<br />
<br />Unfortunately, that's the end of his automatic capability. From that point on, its a pick-up truck, rubber boots, telephone,
<br />wrench, do-it-the-hard-way kind of a process.
<br />
<br />That then explains in about 13 minutes what it took 134 years to put together in terms ofa water system. Now there will
<br />be time for questions, but there's no point in asking me any questions because I've just told you all I know about the
<br />river.
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<br />Arkansas River Basin Water Forum
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<br />34
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<br />itA River of Dreams and Realities'"
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