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Laterals <br />The Association delivers water through approximately 57 miles of canal and laterals. The main <br />canal is roughly 27 miles in length. There are several major lateral off of the main canal and the <br />majority of water is delivered through headgates off of these laterals. None of the canal and <br />lateral system is lined. There are 171aterals off of the main canal designated Lateral No.l, <br />Lateral No.2, etc.). Not all of the lateral are routinely used, and some have been renamed. <br />The Canal and lateral system historically received significant amounts of return flows from lands <br />irrigated under the Terrace Land and Reservoir Company (to the west). The majority of this <br />water entered the Canal by way of intercepted subsurface returns. Several years ago the Terrace <br />Company concrete lined much of their conveyance system and this has reduced the amount of <br />returns captured by the Monte Vista system. <br />Water Allocation Among Owners <br />Water allocation to share owners of the Association is unique in that it differs between owners on <br />the north end of the system and those on the south end. On the north end of the system, water is <br />delivered continuously over a 24 hour period. Owners on the south end are delivered water over <br />a continuous 12 hour period. The boundary line separating these two delivery schedules is the <br />10-South (or 10 miles south of the Rio Grande diversion point). <br />For share owners on the 12 hour system, the Association runs "double shares" for 12 hours, as <br />opposed to running single shares for 24 hours. This is done primarily to allow head in the canal <br />to build up to allow delivery into farm headgates. <br />One share in the Association generally equals a 5 miners-inch delivery stream when there is a100 <br />percent allocation. The Association typically begins delivering at a 30 percent allocation based <br />on the number one priority, then can deliver between 80 and 100 percent when the number two <br />priority comes in. <br />The Association typically starts running water between April 1 and April 15th with their number <br />one priority for 132.2 cfs. By the middle of May, the Association can usually start running their <br />second priority for another 125 cfs. By the middle of July flows in the Rio Grande have typically <br />dropped such that the Association is back down to diverting only they first priority (132.2 cfs). <br />Use of Storage Water <br />Approximately 43 Association share owners (41 percent) also own shares in the Santa Maria <br />Reservoir Company, which owns Santa Maria and Continental reservoirs. This represents about <br />10 percent the Reservoir Company stock, the balance of which is owned by some of the <br />shareholders of the Rio Grande Canal Water Users Association. One share of stock in the <br />Reservoir Company typically represents delivery of approximately 0.06 cfs, or 0.13 acre-feet <br />each year, although the amount of reservoir water delivered depends on the amount that the <br />reservoir company can store each year. The Association attempts to run storage water at the same <br />time as river water in order to minimize losses. <br />Releases from storage are typically called for as the river starts to drop and the Association's <br />priorities start going out. The amount of water the Association receives from reservoir storage <br />depends quite a bit on activities of the Rio Grande Canal, who's shareholders own the other 90 <br />percent. In 1998, the Association ran reservoir water for 7 days. Two-thirds of the reservoir <br />C:Acdss\MVCanal.doc Monte Vista Water Users Association June 21 , 1999- Page 4 of 7 <br />