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1.3. Water Resources Development <br />The San Juan and Dolores river basins have had substantial water resources developments in <br />the form of storage projects and pipelines developed by private groups and federal agencies. <br />Table 1.1 presents a timeline of key developments within the basin. <br />Table 1.1 <br />Key Water Resources Developments <br />Date Project Agency <br />Earl 1940's Pine River Pro~ect - Vallecito Reservoir USBR <br />Late 1940's Mancos Pro~ect -Jackson Gulch Reservoir USBR <br />Late 1950's Colorado River Storage Project -Navajo Reservoir USBR <br />1964 Florida Pro~ect -Lemon Reservoir USBR <br />1972 ~ San Juan Chama Project ~ USBR <br />1985 ~ Dolores Project -McPhee Reservoir ~ USBR <br />Section 2 provides a detailed description of all the modeled water resources developments <br />within the basin. <br />1.4. Water Rights Administration and Operations <br />Historical water rights have been administered in the San Juan and Dolores River basins <br />according to the prior appropriation doctrine. Some special cases of water rights <br />administration are as follows: <br />The San Juan Chama Project diverts water from the Rio Blanco, Little Navajo, and <br />Navajo rivers in Colorado for export to the Rio Grande basin in New Mexico. The <br />project does not have absolute decreed water rights in Colorado and is administered <br />as the most junior right on the system within the state. Minimum streamflow bypass <br />requirements on each of the streams are administered as just senior to the diversions <br />for this project. <br />^ Indian water rights exist in the San Juan basin. They are relatively senior and are <br />modeled via the prior appropriation doctrine like any other water rights in the basin. <br />^ Navajo Reservoir and several large diversions from the San Juan River in New <br />Mexico are included in the San Juan Model, although they are not administered by <br />the State of Colorado. They are administered within the model as junior in priority to <br />all Colorado water rights. <br />^ The La Plata Compact governs the distribution of water on the La Plata River <br />between the states of Colorado and New Mexico. The administration is dependent <br />upon the streamflow at two gaging stations: 1) Hesperus Station (USGS No. <br />09365500) and 2) Interstate Station (USGS No. 9366500). During the year from <br />San Juan & Dolores River Basin Information 1-5 <br />