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Laterals <br />The Association delivers water through 210 miles of canal and laterals. The service area of the <br />Association is divided into seven different "divisions." Each of the seven divisions is managed <br />by a different Association Ditch Rider. The Association's seven member Board of Directors <br />includes a representative from each division. <br />Water Allocation Among Owners <br />Water is delivered to owners of the Association on a pro-rata basis, with water deliveries being <br />proportional to the number of shares owned. The amount of water actually delivered is also <br />dependent on the amount of water available for diversion at the river and the amount of recharge <br />and transportation loss experienced. Because water is not delivered on a rotational basis to <br />owners, water deliveries are not made to any owners unless all others can also receive water. The <br />decision not to rotate water around the service area stems primarily from the large (up to 600 cfs) <br />day-to-day fluctuations in the Rio Grande which affect physical availability at the river headgate. <br />Use of Storage Water <br />A subset of the owners of the Association own approximately 90 percent of the stock in Santa <br />Maria Reservoir Company, which owns and operates Santa Maria Reservoir and Continental <br />Reservoir. Although they are separate entities, the Association and the Santa Maria Reservoir <br />Company work very closely towards the benefit of their water users. Additional information <br />concerning operations of these reservoirs can be found in a memorandum documenting <br />discussions with the Santa Maria Reservoir Company. <br />Water is stored in Santa Maria and Continental in several possible ways. Each of the reservoirs <br />have their own decreed storage water rights owned by the Santa Maria Reservoir Company. <br />These rights allow storage during the winter months (winter storage) and during peak runoff <br />periods (priority storage) when the water rights are in priority. Water may also be stored via <br />exchanges, typically for convenience during maintenance periods. <br />The Association can, by agreement with Santa Maria Reservoir Company, store water in Santa <br />Maria and Continental reservoir under direct flow water rights. The Association also has <br />agreement with the San Luis Valley Irrigation District for direct flow storage in Rio Grande <br />Reservoir. Direct flow storage by the Association was decreed in Case No. W-3979, which <br />contains several important terms and conditions governing the practice. <br />The decision to store direct flow water rights owned by the Association is made by the Board of <br />Directors. In general, the decision to store is made when it is in the best interest of its share <br />owners. The Board's policy is to not store under direct flow rights until each share owner has <br />received all direct flow water they need. <br />The Association has stored very little water under direct flow rights since the decree was issued in <br />1984. When direct flow rights have been stored, water has been placed in Rio Grande Reservoir. <br />This has been done because of greater storable inflows as compared to Santa Maria and <br />Continental reservoirs. There is currently no contractual limit on the direct flow storage capacity <br />available to the Association in Rio Grande Reservoir, although the SLVID could impose limits in <br />the future. The agreement between SLVID and the Association provides that SLVID has <br />preference on storable inflows to Rio Grande Reservoir. <br />C:Acdss\RGCanal.doc Rio Grande Canal Water Users Association Interview June 13, 1999 -Page 4 of 7 <br />