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Administration <br />Administration of the water rights associated with the Consolidated Home Supply Ditch and <br />Reservoir Company involves interaction with the Water District 4 Water Commissioner and the <br />Division 1 Engineer. The Superintendent of the ditch company is more often in contact with <br />these individuals during periods of storage and during periods when direct flow calls have been <br />placed downstream on the Big Thompson River. <br />The Big Thompson storage rights are generally senior to the downstream storage rights on the <br />South Platte River and are therefore able to divert, in priority, with respect to other active Big <br />Thompson winter diversions. In normal years, calls from the South Platte do not affect <br />administration in Water District SThe summer calls on the South Platte River do not generally <br />affect Water District 4 as water rights on the Big Thompson River are generally senior to South <br />Platte River water rights. Some of the Home Supply Ditch direct flow water rights are relatively <br />junior on the Big Thompson River, which requires active management of ditch company storage <br />in order to maintain water deliveries to shareholders during the latter months of the irrigation <br />season. <br />OPERATIONAL INFORMATION <br />The Consolidated Home Supply Ditch and Reservoir system diverts, stores, and delivers water to <br />shareholders. Direct diversions to the ditch headgate are supplemented directly by Lone Tree <br />Reservoir and by exchange Lon Hagler Reservoir and Mariano Reservoir. <br />The general operating strategy for the Consolidated Home Supply Ditch and Reservoir Company <br />in a typical year is as follows: <br />Winter <br />• The Company begins to fill Lone Tree Reservoir under its storage water right on <br />November 1, or after irrigation demands in the basin have ceased. The Home Supply <br />Ditch typically diverts the entire river to storage until the reservoir fills except for 3.44 <br />cfs of senior water owned by the City of Loveland. <br />• Mariano Reservoirs typically begins to store on March 1 and will fill during the spring <br />runoff. <br />• Lon Hagler Reservoir will divert to storage, to the extent possible, during the spring <br />runoff. <br />• Lone Tree Reservoir will fill every year due to its senior storage right. Mariano Reservoir <br />will fill in all but the driest years. Lon Hagler Reservoir will only store a few thousand <br />ac-ft in an average year due to its junior priority. <br />Summer <br />• The irrigation season typically extends from mid-May to mid-September <br />• Users are assigned an initial allocation based on the water in storage after the spring <br />runoff. Additional water is made available based on the yield of the Company's direct <br />flow water rights. <br />Home Supply Ditch Operating Memorandum.doc 14 of 15 February 16, 2005 <br />