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WATER RIGHTS <br />Michigan Ditch has decreed direct flow water rights for a total of 340.0 cfs from the Michigan <br />River. However, limitations of the decrees allow for a maximum of 146 cfs to be diverted under <br />the Michigan Ditch decrees. Once water is transported to the South Platte River basin it may be <br />used for a variety of uses including, but not limited to, storage, augmentation, municipal, <br />domestic, recreation, and irrigation. Foreign water brought into the Cache la Poudre Basin is 100 <br />percent consumptive. Water can be reused to extinction and is not required to provide return <br />flows.Table 1 presents the details of the associated direct flow rights. <br />Table 1 <br />Direct Flow Water Rights <br />Structure Appropriation Adjudication Administration Decreed <br /> <br />Name Source <br />Date <br />Date <br />No. <br />Rate Use <br />Michigan Michigan 121.0 cfs <br />Ditch River 710/1902 7/1/1908 19183 Absolute Irrigation <br />Michigan Michigan <br />79/1904 <br />7/1/1908 <br />19913 48.0 cfs <br />Irrigation <br />Ditch River Absolute <br />Michigan Michigan 25.0 cfs <br />Ditch River 9/10/1910 1/6/1913 22167 Absolute Irrigation <br /> 101.0 cfs <br />Michigan Michigan <br />6/29/1988 <br />12/31/1988 <br />50584 Absolute <br />All <br />Ditch River 45.0 cfs <br /> Conditional <br />~' Colorado Water Ri hts Tabularion. <br />Associated Storage: Michigan Ditch diverts direct flow water from the North Platte River <br />basin. Fort Collins owns 1,200 acre-feet of capacity in Meadow Creek Reservoir located <br />in North Park (in the North Platte River basin) which is used as replacement water to <br />allow out-of-priority diversions through the Michigan Ditch. In the South Platte River <br />basin, storage of Michigan Ditch water in Joe Wright Reservoir was decreed in Case No. <br />88CW206. <br />Compact and Other Legal Considerations: Michigan Ditch is subject to two compact <br />considerations: <br />Nebraska v. Wyoming 325 U. S. 589 (1945) (aka, North Platte River Basin <br />Decree) and <br />Case No. W-9322-78. <br />Michigan Ditch is one of two transmountain ditches subject to the North Platte River <br />Basin Decree, the other ditch is Cameron Pass Ditch. The North Platte River Basin <br />Decree, which includes the original 19451anguage and modified language in 1953, limits <br />Colorado's use of the North Platte River basin as follows: <br />1. Total irrigation in Jackson County (Water District 47) is limited to 145,000 acres. <br />2. Total storage for irrigation during any one irrigation season is limited to 17,000 <br />acre-feet. <br />MichiganDitch.doc 6 of 9 <br />