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Administering, 1Vlanaging and Regulating 1Nater
<br />Trans-mountain Diversions and Basin of Origin Protection
<br />A trans-mountain diversion occurs when water is exported from one water-
<br />shed into another. West Slope water diverted to points ease of the Continental
<br />Divide supplies many Front Range water uses. This imported water is 100 per-
<br />cent consumptive. This means that the water can be reused to extinction, and is
<br />not required to provide return Flows. This is because the law recognizes that no
<br />water from the diversion will ever Ilow back to its basin of origin.
<br />In the Colorado River Basin specifically, Colorado statutes require that
<br />water conservancy districts have basin of origin protection plans in place as a
<br />condition for exporting water from the natural Colorado River Basin to other
<br />areas of the state. The General Assembly has not extended this requirement to
<br />other entities, such as municipalities, or to water appropriated and removed
<br />from other basins.
<br />According to the statute, a basin of origin protection plan must include meas-
<br />ures for the design, construction, and operation of water exportation facilities, so
<br />that present and future beneficial consumptive water uses will not be impaired,
<br />nor increased in cost, at the Expense of the water users within the natural basin.
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<br />Water Storage
<br />In his 1879 Report on the Lands of fhe
<br />Arid Regions, John Wesley Powell stressed
<br />the necessity of water storage in the west-
<br />ern United States. He feared that corporate
<br />monopolies would control the sale and use
<br />of water unless government intervened on
<br />behalf of the farmers.
<br />In 1902, Congress passed the
<br />Reclamation Act to help Colorado and the
<br />other western states finance reservoirs.
<br />Under a pro~~ision of the Reclamation Act,
<br />all reclamation projects must obtain water
<br />rights based on state law.
<br />Faced with requirements in the
<br />Reclamation Act for local project sponsors
<br />to help repay a portion of project costs, the
<br />Colorado General Assembly adopted laws
<br />creating irrigation districts, water conser-
<br />vancy districts, and water conservation
<br />districts. These entities were given author-
<br />ity to contract directly with the U.S.
<br />Bureau of Reclamation. The contracts for
<br />early reclamation projects were devoted
<br />almost entirely to irrigation. Later projects,
<br />like the Colorado-Big Thompson and
<br />Fryingpan-Arkansas projects, also served
<br />some municipal and industrial uses.
<br />The Colorado-Big Thompson Project
<br />provides water for some 600,000 acres of
<br />farmland and 30 cities and water districts in
<br />seven northeastern Colorado counties. The
<br />Fryingpan-Arkansas Project supplies water
<br />to farmers and cities in the Arkansas Valley
<br />Other examples of U.S. Bureau of
<br />Reclamation projects include the
<br />Uncompahgre Project in the Gunnison River
<br />Basin, and the Grand Valley Project, which
<br />diverts water from the Colorado River near
<br />Grand Junction. These two federal projects
<br />currently irrigate approximately 12.2,000
<br />acres in western Colorado.
<br />The Aspinall Unit of the Colorado River
<br />Storage Project near Gunnison helps the
<br />Colorado River upper basin states
<br />(Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and
<br />Wyoming) meet their Colorado River
<br />Compact water delivery requirements to the
<br />L^ C^ L^ R A D^ F^ U N D A T I ^ N F^ R W A T E R E D U C A T I ^ N
<br />7rcans-conC~neni,tal diversion projects bring water from west of the Great I,~ivide
<br />t~o dae rraare pa~pulous eastern slo~~e. Throuphol.R Colorado, ~tMerra ore many
<br />diversions bet~reen river basins and sub-basins that are not shown on this map.
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