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BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT PARK CENTER WELL ffiSTORY OF USE The Park Center Well was drilled as an exploratory oil and gas well between 1923 and 1927. The well was a failure for oil and gas production, but water was produced under artesian pressure. The well drillers estimated water potential water production at 22,000 barrels per day. As provided for by Iaw, the Federal government purchased the well casing and conditioned the well for water production in 1934. Records indicate that the well was controlled and has not flowed freely since 1935. The well can produce 781 gallons per minute against a pressure of 143 psi. In 1937, the Canon Heights Irrigation Company entered into a lease with the United States for use of the water from the well. Water was used to irrigate an estimated 800 acres north of Canon City. In 1968, the Park Center Water District was formed to provide domestic water to residences in the North Canon City area. The users were largely the same people who had used the water for irrigation. When the domestic district was formed, 130 users were served. By 1991, approximately 788 households were served, and in 1997 there are approximately 1,000 households that use this well as a source of domestic water. In 1990, the United States was awarded a reserved right on the well for 2.67 cfs. Historical use of the well has been a minor fraction of the Federal reserved right. In 1991, the existing lease on the well was re-negotiated with Park Center Water District. The lease provides that the purpose of the lease is to provide the water district and its inhabitants the full use of all production from the well as a source of domestic water for their present and future needs. Based upon records from a totalizing meter at the well head, average annual diversions between 1982 and 1991 were 247 acre feet. In water year 1994, diversions from the well were 353 acre feet, as recorded from the meter. Because the well is presently decreed as tributary, BLM is currently member of the Arkansas River Groundwater Users Association (AGUA). The association assumes that the District consumptively uses 38.5 % of the amount diverted annually at wellhead, and that the remainder reaches the Arkansas River system as return flows from the District.