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In Colorado, after the streams peak from spring snowmelt, the reservoirs have filled as much as they can based on their allotment in the priority system, and stream flows start to drop, some water rights in the river system may not have suf- ficient water to fulfill their court-decreed diversion amount. Water users may then start to call for their water based on the priority system of "first in time, first in right." For example, in late July, irrigator Jane is not getting enough water to irrigate her garlic farm. She has a decreed water right with a 1940 priority date. Time to place a call. 1) Irrigator Jane contacts her local designated ditch official, and says she needs to call for her water. She can only call for the amount of water provided in her water right decree, and only for the amount that she can actually put to ben- eficial use (e.g., irrigation of a crop). 2) The ditch official contacts the local water commissioner at the Colorado Division of Water Resources and places the initial call. Depending on the river system, a verbal call may be made, but in many cases a formal written call for water is required. 3) When the call comes on, the water commissioner verifies its legitimac}; then starts looking upstream to shut down all undecreed uses. Still not. enough water! 4) The water commissioner then limits all decreed upstream users to decreed amounts of diversion. Still not enough water to fulfill irrigator Jane's 1940 water right! 5) Now, the water commissioner will use the priority system to look upstream from Jane's headgate diversion, for decreed users with priority dates more recent than 1940. These users are considered "junior" and their diversions will be reduced or shut down. 6) Each decreed junior water user, based on their order of priority, junior to senior, is shut down until Jane gets enough water to fulfill her 1940 water right. 7) However, stream levels are still dropping, and now, downstream municipa] user Blue City does not haze enough water to fulfill its 1927 water right. Bhie City= places a call. 8) The water commissioner will go through the same process, reducing or shutting down all rights more recent than 1927 until Blue City's rights are met. This may mean that irrigator Jane will have to let water flow past her headgate to fulfill Blue City's senior downstream right. 9) If you don't comply, the water commissioner will lock down your headgate! The priority date of the river call may change each day depending on the stream flow available, and the seniority of the diversions that need water on that day. An additional consideration: Some water must be carried down river, and cannot be diverted. This could include reser- voir water, trans-basin diversion water, the state's instream flow water rights, or water that must be delivered under inter- state compacts or U.S. Supreme Court equitable apportion- ment decrees. The Colorado Division of Water Resources keeps track of all calls for water on its Web site wwwwater.state.co.us Adapted from What Exactly is a River Call? by Ken Beegles, Colorado Division of Water Resources, Division 7. ~~~' al