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<br />With a surface area of 359 acres, Rifle Gap Reservoir has a total capacity of 13,602 <br />acre-feet and an active capacity of 12,168 acre-feet. All of this water is accounted <br />for through the District and senior water rights and instream flows. <br /> <br />Hydrology and Water Rights <br /> <br />The water supply for the District is comprised of the upper 140 square miles of <br />Rifle Creek and pumping from the Colorado River. Three tributaries, East Rifle, <br />Middle Rifle and West Rifle Creeks, converge a short distance north of the Grand <br />Hogback to form Rifle Creek. The average elevation of the East Rifle Creek <br />watershed is much higher than that of the other two tributaries, and is underlain by <br />cavernous limestone that permit natural underground storage. The stream is fed <br />principally by a large number of springs with relatively constant flow. <br /> <br />The District holds water rights for the Project with decreed uses being irrigation, <br />boating, fish and recreation. The rights carry an appropriation date of November <br />20, 1951. <br /> <br />Some project water is released directly from Rifle Gap reservoir into Davie Ditch <br />to supply irrigation water to project lands on Davie Mesa. The majority of <br />reservoir releases are made to meet downstream Rifle Creek diversion rights for <br />non-project lands. These releases allow additional diversions from East Rifle <br />Creek upstream from Rifle Gap Reservoir for Project use. Delivered through the <br />Grass Valley Canal, this exchange water provides a full irrigation supply for new <br />project lands and a supplemental supply to project lands previously irrigated <br />through Grass Valley Canal diversions and with Harvey Gap Reservoir storage. <br /> <br />Water from the Silt Pumping Plant is used as a supplemental supply, or as a <br />replacement supply, for project land formerly irrigated with water from Harvey <br />Gap and a small portion with Colorado River water pumped from the Cactus <br />Valley Ditch. It also is used as an exchange for non-project water to replace <br />Harvey Gap Reservoir water for project lands above the Silt Pump Canal. <br />Reclamation has set aside 5,000 acre-feet of water from Green Mountain Reservoir <br />for use as a replacement source for out-of-priority diversions by the Silt Pumping <br />Plant. <br /> <br />5 <br />