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also available to satisfy instream flow water rights located between Blue Mesa <br />Reservoir and Taylor Park Reservoir. <br />Any water remaining in the Upper Gunnison District's account in Taylor Park <br />Reservoir at the end of any water year (October) is booked into the UVWUA's Taylor <br />Park Reservoir account. Remaining water in storage in Taylor Park Reservoir, <br />together with any accumulated credits in Blue Mesa Reservoir at the end of the water <br />year, is charged against the one annual fill of the UVWUA's senior water storage <br />right in the next year. <br />2.4.7. Conclusions and Recommendations <br />The integrated operation of Taylor Park and Blue Mesa Reservoirs is complex and is <br />dependent upon a number of considerations that have varied widely on a historic basis, <br />including changing patterns of release from Taylor Park Reservoir to sustain a fishery on <br />the Taylor and Upper Gunnison Rivers, varied use of storage water by the UVWUA <br />(strict administration versus "good neighbor" policies), and the USBR's policies with <br />respect to power generation and minimum streamflows below the Aspinall Unit <br />reservoirs. These factors make it difficult to establish a set of monthly storage targets to <br />simulate future operations of these reservoirs. <br />The model structure has been designed to replicate the current methods of operation of <br />these reservoirs. Target storage levels were determined through analysis of historic end- <br />of-month contents and are presented as a set of three targets for each month of the year, <br />depending on the nature of the annual runoff. It is recommended for future CRDSS <br />efforts, that, in conjunction with the USBR, additional work be devoted to development <br />of more reliable targets based on stream forecasting methodologies. It is also <br />recommended that the State and the CRDSS consultant continue to evaluate the effects of <br />the informal agreements with the UVWUA regarding the "good neighbor" operations. <br />2.5. Fruitland Mesa Area Water Rights <br />This section describes the operation of a number of direct flow water rights and one reservoir <br />storage right (Gould Reservoir) that are used for irrigation purposes in the Fruitland Mesa <br />area south of Crawford, Colorado. These operations involve significant transbasin diversions <br />from the Crystal Creek drainage to the Smith Fork drainage and storage in an 8,100 acre-foot <br />reservoir (Gould). Information summarized in this section was obtained from a review of the <br />State's tabulation of water rights, review of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation's (USBR's) <br />Definite Plan Report for the Fruitland Mesa Project, and through interviews with Bill <br />Mugsford, a director of the Fruitland Mesa Water Conservancy District (FMWCD). <br />2.5.1. General Description of the Water Rights in the Fruitland Mesa Area <br />There are four major irrigation systems that are considered in the CRDSS water resources <br />planning model. The water rights associated with these systems are summarized in the <br />following table. <br />Gunnison River Basin Information 2-17 <br />