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Administration <br />The Left Hand Ditch Company owns sufficient senior water rights on Left Hand Creek to <br />effectively control all of the flows in Left Hand Creek. As such, the ditch company historically <br />required no administration on Left Hand Creek. The Water Commissioner records fall and spring <br />storage volumes in the ditch company's reservoirs to identify any out-of-priority storage <br />diversions against the winter calling rights on the St. Vrain Creek or the South Platte River. <br />OPERATIONAL INFORMATION <br />The Left Hand Ditch system diverts, stores, and delivers water to shareholders on an equitable <br />acre-foot per share basis from its various water sources. Therefore, the ditch company reservoirs, <br />direct flow rights, and other supplies are essentially operated in aggregate fashion to provide <br />water throughout the service area for all users. The ditch system infrastructure is used to meet <br />two levels of demands: <br />• Irrigation demands, and <br />• Left Hand Water District municipal demands of about 3 to 3.5 cfs. <br />Although there is a great amount of variability in the delivery of water to shareholders within any <br />irrigation ditch system, the Left Hand Ditch Company generally delivers water according to the <br />following priority of sources, with the objective of keeping water as high in the system as long as <br />possible. <br />1) Direct Flow Rights, <br />2) Transbasin Water (C-BT Project), <br />3) Lower Basin Storage Releases, and <br />4) Upper Basin Storage Releases. <br />The general order of operations listed above is modified based on different weather issues and <br />access issues, as described below. The use of water from multiple sources within the ditch <br />system occurs frequently. The following ditch company operations of interest are based on <br />information gained during a meeting with ditch company representatives and observations by the <br />Water Commissioner: <br />Winter <br />• Diversion headgate on South Fork St. Vrain Creek left open to be able to divert 40.77 cfs <br />senior water right. The ditch company generally sweeps the river during the winter (as <br />measured in upstream stream gage - 06722500), which typically amounts to about 6 cfs <br />diversion. The majority of water diverted (perhaps 3 cfs - 3.5 cfs) is conveyed down Haldi <br />Ditch for use by Left Hand Water District to meet winter potable demands. Potable demands <br />not met directly are generally met with releases from Gold Lake. Additional water, if <br />available for diversion in the winter, is typically stored in Left Hand Valley Reservoir or <br />Allens Lake. <br />Left Hand Ditch Operating Memorandum.doc 14 of 17 January 5, 2005 <br />