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<br />BACKGROUND <br />Water Development <br />Private irrigation development in the Gunnison River basin began in the <br />1880's, with an estimated 180,000 acres under irrigation by 1906 (USBR 1990). <br />Consumptive water use was estimated to be 229,000 AF per year by that time. <br />The Redlands Diversion, a barrier to upstream passage of fish, was built on <br />the lower Gunnison River in 1918. The Redlands Diversion has a high-priority <br />water right to divert 750 cfs and can dry up the Gunnison River below the dam <br />during extremely low-flow periods. However, about 700 cfs of this water <br />reenters the Colorado River a few miles downstream from the mouth of the <br />Gunnison River. Federal involvement in the basin began in 1909 with the <br />completion of the Gunnison Tunnel which diverts water from the Gunnison River <br />into the Uncompahgre River Valley. Taylor Park Dam, on the Taylor River in <br />the headwaters of the Gunnison, was completed in 1937 to provide water storage <br />for the Gunnison Tunnel (see Table A8 for a summary of the storage capacity of <br />reservoirs mentioned in the text). Diversion structures were placed on the <br />Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers as part of this project. Annual diversions <br />for this project average about 559,000 acre feet--about half of this flow is <br />used consumptively and the remainder ultimately enters the Gunnison River near <br />Delta. An estimated 246,000 acres were irrigated in the basin by 1960, with <br />about 466,000 AF of consumptive water use (USBR 1990). <br />The Aspinall Unit Reservoirs--Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal--were <br />completed in 1966, 1970, and 1976 respectively. Gunnison River flows are <br />controlled by Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest of the three reservoirs (see <br />Table A8 for reservoir capacity). Crystal, the lower most reservoir, re- <br />4 <br />