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� <br />' 1.3. Project Area <br />' The RRWCD is located in northeastern Colorado and includes all of Yuma and Phillips <br />Counties and those portions of Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, S�dgwiek, and Washington <br />Counties that overlie the Ogallala Aquifer. A map of the RRWCD is attached. <br />' The RRWCD encompasses about 7,761 sq�are miles or �bout 7:5�/0 of Colorado'� <br />104,247 square miles. There are approximately 545,00� irrigated aCres within the <br />' RRWCD. Wifih the exception of �pproximately 3,000 aeres irrigated by surface w�ter, <br />virtu�lly all the acreage in the basin is irrigat�d with ground water from the Ogallala <br />Aquifer. In 2002, irriga#ed land in tho R�publican River Basin aecounted for <br />� approxirnately twenty-two percent (22% of the irrigated acres in CQlor�do. <br />1.4. Land Us�s Within the Republican River Basin <br />' The Republican River Basin overlies the Ogallala Aquifer, a region�l undErgraund <br />aquifer system underlying partions of �even $t�t�s from South D�kota to the Texas <br />� panhandl�, ineluding p4rtions of the Republican F�iver Basin in Colorado, Nebrasl�a, and <br />Kansas. <br />� In 1965, the Colorado Ground Water Management Act was enacted, which �reated the <br />Colorado Ground W�ter Corr�mission and allow�d the Commission to establish <br />design�ated ground water ba�ins. the Mana�ement A�t applied � modified doctrine of <br />� prior appropri�tion to desigr�ated ground wat�r to p¢rmit the full eeonomic development <br />of 5u�h grc�und water. <br />� In 1966 the Ogallala Aquifer in the Republican River B�sin in Colorado was included in <br />the No+thern High Plains Designated G�ound Water Basin. At that time, there was <br />limited well developm�nt in the b�sin. However, improvements in center pivot sprinkl�r <br />' irrigation systemS aUowed fMe dEVeloprr�ent of land that was mor� difficult tc� ir�igate with <br />flood irrigation methads, and approximately 4,000 fin�l permits have been issued within <br />the Northern High Plains Basin. lssuance of permit� in the basin slowed during th� <br />� 1980s and �ssentially cea�ed by 1990 The Colorado Graund Watef Gommissi�n <br />recognized that there was limit�d r��harge to the Ogalla{a Aquifer in the �asin relative <br />to the large �mount of water in starage in the� aquifer and au#Morized contr�lled mining <br />� of ground water Fn the basin based on a rate of depletion of 40°Ic over 25 years. This <br />was later amended to be 44°!0 over 1 QO years. <br />� In 1974, the Colorado Suprerrie Court ruled that ground water taking over a century to <br />reach a surface stream was nof part of the water subjeet to appropfi�tion under the <br />Color�do Constitutican and cc�uld be rrianag�d separately as designated ground w�ter. <br />' Kui�r v. Lundvall, 529 P.2d 1328 (Col�. 1974). At that time, no one thvugMt that <br />ground water in the agallala Aquifer had been �pportioned by the RepubliCan River <br />Comp�ct or that withdrawals frorri ths �quifef were subje�t to the Compact. <br />1 � <br />� <br />' � <br />