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I Colorado Central Magazine November 1999 Page 13 Page 4 of 10 concerted and sustained assault on the water of the Upper Gunnison basin since the late 1980s. And the people of the Upper Gunnison basin have unified against that effort, with equal determination, around the slogan, "Not One Drop!" But if the people of the Upper Gunnison are unified in not wanting "our" water to go out of the basin, they are much less unified on what to do with it in the basin. The Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District (UGRWCD) -- a taxing district whose board is charged with the development and management of water rights in the basin -- is meeting significant opposition to its plans for keeping the water in the valley. Recently, a"taxpayer revolt" forced the UGRWCD by petition to hold elections for board members, who have always previously, by state law, been appointed by judges -- water traditionally being considered too important to be left up to the vagaries of democracy. Further complicating the picture are major federal interests in Upper Gunnison basin water; two major federal interests are somewhat in conflict themselves. Also, one of the world's largest mining companies has been seeking conditional water rights for a major new mine near Crested Butte. Local "Not One Drop" mythology notwithstanding, the fact that the Front Range cities have gained no water from the Upper Gunnison for their considerable investment to date (estimated at more than $3 million) is probably due less to local opposition in the Upper Gunnison than to a swirl of changes in the larger American society -- changes that underlie the internal conflicts within the Upper Gunnison basin as well. All of the West's chickens (or ducks) are coming to roost along and around the streams of the Upper Gunnison Basin -- the Upper Gunnison Knot. Turning a river into plumbing The fact that the Upper Gunnison is the last "waterhole" untapped by the major population centers surrounding the Upper Colorado River hardly means that it is a virgin flow in a natural state. Indeed, the valley's best hope of escaping out-of-basin diversion is the contention that the waters of the Upper Gunnison are so thoroughly used that there is no water left to be diverted. The first really large appropriation from the Upper Gunnison's waters was, in fact, an out-of-basin diversion, although the water stayed within the larger Gunnison Basin. In 1905, farmers in the Uncompaghre Valley near Montrose (the next valley west from the Upper Gunnison) began a tunnel from the Black Canyon out to the dry eastern edge of their valley, a tunnel the brand-new Bureau of Reclamation finished for them in 1912. This draws more than 1,000 cubic feet per second out of the Upper Gunnison with a priority right of 1905. During many years in the first third of the century, the Uncompaghre Valley Water Users Association put a"call" on the river for late summer water -- a demand that senior downstream rights be honored -- that forced junior appropriators in the Upper Gunnison to let the water flow past. The Bureau of Reclamation tried to relieve this situation in the mid-1930s with a dam at the head of the Taylor River Canyon, backing up a 100,000-acre-foot reservoir into Taylor Park. This was completed in 1941. This helped the Upper Gunnison farmers somewhat, but at that point, the Taylor ceased to be a natural river in its beautiful canyon. It ran when the Uncompaghre farmers wanted it to, and the rest of the time http://www.cozine.com/archive/ccl 999/00690133.htm 7/9/2003