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The largest irrigation system in the Fruitland Mesa area is operated by the Fruitland <br />Irrigation Company (FIC), the owner of the Fruitland Canal. The canal is used to irrigate <br />approximately 7,400 acres on the mesa west of Iron Creek. Irrigation return flows from <br />the Fruitland system generally accrue to the Smith Fork, downstream of the Town of <br />Crawford. The FIC also owns and operates Gould Reservoir (aka Fruitland Reservoir), <br />which has an estimated usable capacity of approximately 8,100 acre-feet (Mugsford). <br />The FIC holds a number of direct flow decrees, which cumulatively total approximately <br />537 cfs, not including a junior, conditional water right for 600 cfs that was decreed as <br />part of the Fruitland Mesa Project. The Fruitland Canal rights are junior to the <br />Cattlemens, Dyers Fork, and Crystal Valley water rights, and generally will divert all of <br />the remaining Crystal Creek flows available at its head gate after the senior diversions <br />except for flood flows that would exceed the physical capacity of the canal at its inlet <br />(400 cfs). The main canal that diverts from Crystal Creek is known as the Highline Ditch <br />and serves as a delivery ditch for a small number of the FIC shareholders with lands <br />located physically above Gould Reservoir; it is also the feeder ditch for the reservoir. <br />Downstream of the turnout on the Highline Ditch that is used to convey water to the <br />reservoir, the physical capacity is approximately 60 cfs. The second ditch (the Lowline <br />Ditch or the Gould Canal) also has a capacity of approximately 60 cfs and delivers <br />storage water from Gould Reservoir to the service area. The two ditches join at a <br />location approximately three miles northwest of the reservoir into a single supply ditch <br />that has an estimated combined capacity of about 120 cfs. <br />2.5.2. Fruitland Mesa Water Conservancy District <br />The FMWCD was formed in 1960 as the sponsoring agency for the Fruitland Mesa <br />Project, which at that time was authorized as a participating prof ect in the Colorado River <br />Storage Project (CRSP). The project was eventually cut from federal funding. The <br />project, as proposed, was intended to provide supplemental irrigation water to the <br />Fruitland Mesa area by constructing a 51,000 acre-foot storage reservoir on Soap Creek, <br />a tributary of the Gunnison River at Blue Mesa Reservoir. The new reservoir would be <br />used in conjunction with a system of transbasin canals and tunnels to deliver the water to <br />Crystal Creek. The FMWCD acquired and still maintains conditional decrees for the <br />Soap Park Reservoir (87,000 acre-feet), the Crystal Creek Tunnel (330 cfs), and the Soap <br />Park Bench Flume (300 cfs). Future operation of these conditional water rights is not <br />included in the model. <br />2.5.3. Historic Operation of the Fruitland Mesa Area Water Rights <br />Irrigation in the Fruitland Mesa area generally begins around the first of May. If, at that <br />time, there is insufficient water available from Crystal Creek, the FIC may make a <br />nominal release of storage water from Gould Reservoir. As the runoff starts to increase <br />in late May and early June, there is generally streamflow in excess of the senior direct <br />demands of the Cattlemens Ditch (50 cfs), the Dyers Fork Ditch (13.25 cfs), the Crystal <br />Valley Irrigation Ditch (13.35 cfs), and the direct irrigation demand of the FIC (estimated <br />by Mugsford to be approximately 120 cfs). In this situation, the FIC will attempt to fill <br />Gould Reservoir using any unused portion of the ditch capacity of the Highline Ditch by <br />diverting from Crystal Creek. Accordingly, there would need to be nearly 200 cfs of <br />Gunnison River Basin Information 2-19 <br />