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Over the winter and the spring, Boyd Lake is often filled first with Horseshoe Lake and then <br />Lake Loveland filled in reverse, including the top 3 feet to 4 feet of storage space. <br />All three reservoirs will typically fill in wet years and the upper two reservoirs will typically <br />fill in average years. <br />Releasing water from Boyd Lake below gauge height 52.5 feet (41,328 ac-ft) requires <br />operation of the pumps on the lake, whereas Lake Loveland and Horseshoe Lake can release <br />their active storage by gravity. Therefore, operation of the reservoirs during the summer <br />release season and during the winter storage season may show more water in storage than a <br />specific reservoir is entitled. <br />Summer <br />• The irrigation season extends from May 1 -September 20 every year. Irrigators rely on the <br />direct flow rights when the river starts to come up with the majority of diversion coming <br />under the relatively junior (of the Loveland Greeley Canal water right) 1881 water right. <br />• Requests for storage releases start to come in late-June to mid-July and extend through the <br />end of the irrigation season. The highest demand on the system tends to occur during the last <br />two weeks of July. <br />• Water in the main reservoirs under the GLIC system is accounted for separately but water is <br />transferred among units to maximize the available supply. <br />• Delivery of transbasin water typically starts in August. <br />GLIC operates the following three inter-ditch exchanges in most years <br />• Hillsborough Ditch exchange -GLIC takes Hillsborough Ditch direct flow rights at the <br />Loveland Greeley Canal headgate in exchange for releases from Boyd Lake. This <br />exchange is typically operated throughout the summer and can reach a rate of about 35 <br />cfs in July and August. This exchange is limited by Boyd Lake storage above 22,486 ac- <br />ft capacity (gauge height 38.0), the level of the invert of the outlet pipe to the Big <br />Thompson River. <br />• Rist Benson Reservoir exchange - Rist Benson Reservoir is owned by the Louden Ditch <br />Company and filled by its water rights. The reservoir is located at the top of the Louden <br />Ditch system but down gradient from the Louden Ditch so the Louden Ditch Company <br />can not use this storage water. Rist Benson Reservoir is located up gradient from the Big <br />Barnes Ditch and can only be emptied into the Big Barnes Ditch into Lake Loveland; <br />therefore, GLIC takes Rist Benson Reservoir storage water into its system when the <br />direct flow rights are down, typically starting around August 1. GLIC provides direct <br />flows rights, if available and C-BT units to the Louden Ditch in exchange. The Louden <br />Ditch Company also owns 16 of the 300 contract rights of Lake Loveland stock and <br />typically takes delivery of this stock water in the late summer in the form of direct flow <br />rights of C-BT units. <br />• Donath Lake exchange -Donath Lake is owned by the Louden Ditch Company and filled <br />by its water rights. The reservoir is located down the ditch system and directly above <br />Boyd Lake. The Louden Ditch Company is not able to carry storage over the winter in <br />Donath Lake due to seepage problems and homes in the surrounding area. Therefore, <br />each fall, the Louden Ditch Company empties Donath Lake into Boyd Lake in exchange <br />for 50 percent of that yield from GLIC the next season if GLIC's reservoirs to not fill the <br />following spring. In order to not limit the storage capacity of GLIC shareholders, the <br />Greeley Loveland Irrigation Company Operating Memorandum.doc 16 of 18 January 5, 2005 <br />