PUB00148

• Year: 1978
• Title: The Colorado Water Study Directions for the Future
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Description: The Colorado Water Study Directions for the Future
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

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25 percent of the owners of irrigated lands to be included in the
district. Since conservancy districts were intended for the benefit
of agricultural interests, the degree to which property in an incor-
porated city or town could be used was limited.

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(4) Federal Involvement.

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As Governor Elbert had foreseen in 1873. federal participation
in western water development was necessary to provide the needed
capital for reclaiming the land for agricultural use. The economic
depression of the l890s and populist demands for governmental relief
finally spurred Congress into action.160 The Reclamation Act of
1902161 provided for federal development projects which would be
financed by leasing the captured water to individual water users.
This system proved to be economically unsound, however, and the act
was amended in 1939 to allow repayment of construction costs by
, contract with users' organizations, with the federal government
absorbing some of the expense.162

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b. Transbasin Diversions.

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In some areas, notably the South Platte basin, the natural
flow of the stream had been entirely appropriated, and it occurred
to a number of people that one solution to the shortage of water
might be to divert water out of watersheds which were not heavily
used and to introduce it into others which needed water. The state
took an early lead in this type of project. A statute of 1889 appro-
priated funds to study "the sources of the Grand, Laramie, and North
Platte river systems, with reference to turning the unappropriated
waters thereof eastward, and causing them to flow into and through
the tributaries of the South Platte and Arkansas river systems for
the purpose of irrigation and other beneficial uses."163

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This was not the first of these diversion projects, however.
In 1860, water was brought across the Continental Divide to provide
water for mining in the area around Fairplay. This project was 164
extended in 1912 to supply the growing needs of the City of Denver.
In 1909, the historic Gunnison Tunnel was opened~ bringing water from
the Gunnison River into the Uncompahgre Valley.los This project was
completed with federal funds provided under the Reclamation Act of
1902.

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Transbasin diversions had been discussed at the Constitutional
Convention on Mr. Stone's suggestion that they be denied priority of
right; however, Chairman Plumb argued successfully that this type of

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11-24

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