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WATER RIGHTS <br />The City's water rights on the Big Thompson River are currently used to supply about 60% of its <br />water demand, with the remaining supplies provided by C-BT deliveries. The City has partial <br />ownership in the senior priority on the Big Thompson River (1861 appropriation date), which <br />satisfied municipal water demands into the 1920s. The City then gained possession of 6.0 cfs of <br />irrigation-season water rights in the Big Thompson Manufacturing Ditch, which has priority <br />numbers 2, 4, 10-1/2 and 20 on the river (1863 to 1872 appropriation dates). The combined 9.44 <br />cfs provided ample supply for the City's water demands until the C-BT project came on line in <br />the mid-1950s. Since 1941, the City also had sole ownership of the Eureka Ditch, a high <br />mountain ditch that delivered water from the western slope into the Big Thompson River through <br />Rocky Mountain National Park. The City and the National Park Service, the United States <br />Bureau of Reclamation, and the NCWCD negotiated a deal under which the City abandoned the <br />ditch in 1985 and NCWCD provided Loveland with 180 ac-ft of yield from the C-BT system. <br />This C-BT water was made available to Loveland starting in fall 1985. <br />Loveland's ditch share ownership has been changed in a number of water court cases. The <br />majority of the City's irrigation water rights holdings on the Big Thompson River were changed <br />in Case No. 82CW202A (the " 202A" transfers). The City's pro rata share ownership in the <br />changed water rights was transferred to the Loveland Pipeline diversion point, which allows the <br />City to divert for municipal purposes without the need to operate an exchange. Loveland was <br />also one of the original entities involved in the Windy Gap project and has ownership of 40 of <br />the 480 total Windy Gap units. The combination of the early transfers, the transmountain water, <br />the 202A transfers and other ditch transfers have provided sufficient water for the City's water <br />demands unti12002, the first time in the City's history that water restrictions were established in <br />response to limited water supply. <br />Direct Flow Rights /Historic Ilse Credits <br />• Big Thompson River direct flow rights from Civil Action Numbers 5278 and 8445, and Case <br />Numbers W-7412, 82CW202, 86CW050, 87CW 178, 89CW090, 92CW 112, and OOCW 108 <br />are summarized in Table 2. <br />City of Loveland Operating Memorandum.doc Page 9 of 15 January 5, 2005 <br />