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<br />Pine to Buffalo Creek <br />This is a short section that is seldom run due to the minimal whitewater found there and <br />access problems with one of the area landowners. <br /> <br />Buffalo Creek to Confluence <br />This section, sometimes called the Foxton run, is a very important Class ill-IV section of <br />the North Fork. It offers many public access points and different length and difficulty of <br />runS4 It too is especially important to whitewater paddlers due to late season <br />supplemental flows provided by transmountain diversion via the Roberts Tunnel and its <br />close proximity to Denver. <br /> <br />c. Water Supply <br /> <br />1. Water Rights <br /> <br />In Colorado, water rights are established according to the Prior Appropriation Doctrine <br />which can be summarized as "first in time, first in right.n Whoever can divert water for a <br />beneficial use, and obtain a decree from State Water Court, is entitled to continue to <br />divert the same amount of water for the same use4 Water rights are prioritized or ranked <br />within a basin according to court date and appropriation date, which is the date the water <br />was first diverted and used. In general, the older the dates, the more firm the supply of <br />water4 A water right is real property, just as is the ownership of land. Water rights can be <br />bought and sold separately from the land they originally served~ <br /> <br />The use of a water right is limited to the beneficial uses included in the decree. For <br />instance, Denver's water rights are generally decreed for municipal uses. In some cases <br />this might prohibit the use of Denver's water to provide minimum fish flows unless those <br />flows were also providing a decreed municipal use. <br /> <br />The three basic types of water rights are direct flow, storage and exchange~ Direct flow <br />water is usually used the same day that it is diverted~ It is typically diverted for irrigation <br />and potable uses~ Storage rights are used to fill reservoirs~ A storage right is typically <br />limited to the volume of the reservoir. Water that is available for storage under a storage <br />right, but which otherwise is bypassed by the reservoir ownert may be counted against the <br />volume of water available under the storage decree+ This concept of "storable inflow" <br />makes it difficult to reserve space in a reservoir with which to capture anticipated peak <br />runoff. The reservoir operator takes a risk of not filling the reservoir in order to skim <br />peak runoff4 An exchange right allows a reservoir to continue to store water in a reservoir <br />even after the storage right is out of priority+ This is in accomplished by supplying <br />downstream senior rights with other water in trade for water stored in the reservoir. <br /> <br />The State Engineer and his network of Water Commissioners administer water rights, <br />making sure they are diverted in priority. If a senior water right holder is not receiving <br />their entitlement, they may place a call on the stream through the Water Commissioner, <br />thereby limiting the diversion of upstream junior water rights. For instance, most senior <br /> <br />N :\Supply\ Waage\wildscen\attachb.doc <br /> <br />B-2! <br />