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Drought diminishes river# <br />Page 1 of 5 <br />e <br />7=., <br />World & Nation <br />the buzz <br />Weather <br />Education <br />Traffic Info <br />Crime Reports <br />Data Search <br />Police Scanners <br />Local News <br />- Ahwatukee <br />- Chandler <br />- Gilbert <br />- Glendale /Peoria <br />- Mesa <br />- Phoenix <br />- Scottsdale <br />- Sun Cities <br />- SW Valley <br />- Tempe <br />- !Extra! <br />Photo Galleries <br />Video Gallery <br />News Multimedia <br />Web Cams <br />Editorials /Op -Ed <br />- Benson Cartoons <br />- Columnists <br />- Plugged In <br />Politics 2004 <br />- Presidential <br />- The Primaries <br />- Register to vote <br />Arizona Republic <br />- Print Edition <br />- Front Pages <br />Obituaries <br />E -mail Newsletters <br />Space.com <br />Special Reports <br />Border issues <br />Famous in AZ <br />AP en Espanol <br />- Estados Unidos <br />- Politica <br />- Latinoamerica <br />- Internacional <br />All <br />l i <br />• Advanced search, tips <br />• Archives (from 1999) <br />Print This I Email This I Most Popular I Subscribe I Larger Type I Smaller Type <br />Drought diminishes river <br />Ranchers, cities near <br />headwaters are last <br />in line for water <br />Shaun McKinnon <br />The Arizona Republic <br />Jul. 25, 2004 12:00 <br />AM <br />KREMMLING, Colo. - <br />Down the hill from the <br />hayfields where <br />Duane Scholl isn't <br />growing hay and the <br />Mark Henle /The Arizona Republic <br />pastures where he <br />isn't grazing cattle, the <br />The largest of the Colorado -Big Thompson Project's <br />Colorado River carves <br />reservoirs, Lake Granby has been reduced in parts to <br />a narrow path, <br />mud flats by the ongoing drought, which has <br />weakened by another <br />significantly cut normal spring runoff. <br />poor snowmelt at its headwaters 40 miles upstream but still strong enough to <br />dominate the landscape. <br />Scholl's ranch rambles over 1,600 acres in <br />the foothills of the high Rocky Mountains. His <br />house is a dusty ride up a gently curving road, <br />hidden from the highway and the rest of the <br />valley. A small creek winds through one side, <br />spitting out ditches at irregular intervals. <br />On paper, Scholl holds rights to the main <br />river, but like a lot of the other ranchers on <br />Colorado's Western Slope, he takes the water <br />from the creek, a tributary that probably won't <br />last through the season. Scholl's right is for 35 <br />cubic feet per second, but the most he has <br />pulled this year is 8 cfs. Some of that he <br />leaves for his downstream neighbor. <br />"If it isn't in the stream, it doesn't make any <br />difference how much of a water right we <br />have," said Scholl, who planted only a third of <br />a hay crop this year and thinned his cattle <br />herd from 180 head to 65. "It's bad right now. <br />There are springs that have always run in my <br />lifetime that are bone -dry this year." <br />Related links <br />• Drought diminishes river <br />• Nature demands her share <br />• States deal for water <br />• Farmers fear dry future <br />• River's headwaters <br />determined by politicians, not <br />geography <br />• Once- vibrant river delta is a <br />low priority <br />• Tribes win new clout in <br />Arizona <br />• Editorial: Irrational rationing <br />• Our river, our future <br />• Take off blinders or face a <br />parched, dusty future <br />• Lack of cooperation will <br />leave us high, dry <br />0 Scenes along the Colorado <br />River <br />• Special report: Next West: <br />'Phenomenal growth' creating <br />tough choices <br />Five years into the worst drought to hit the Colorado River in 500 years, the <br />picture appears bleakest at the headwaters, where the water is the most <br />finite. This is where the West's 1,450 -mile lifeline begins, in the Rocky <br />Mountains northwest of Denver. This is also where a new front in the West's <br />water wars is most likely to erupt. <br />Growth on both sides of the mountains has tapped deeply into Colorado's <br />share of its namesake river. Drought further reduced the pool, and the <br />competition for what remains is intense. The threat of losing even more <br />water to other states, a possibility if the dry spell deepens, has put many <br />here on the defensive. <br />The unrest in Colorado has further stirred unease downstream. 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Korea <br />• Muslim charity <br />indicted in Dallas, <br />accused of dealing <br />with terrorists <br />• Dashboard DVD <br />focus of driver's <br />murder trial <br />• Flooding deaths <br />top 1,000 in South <br />Asia <br />• Diplomats: Iran <br />resumes building <br />• autos <br />• jobs <br />• homes I re <br />• stuff <br />• sell your cz <br />• personals <br />• place an ad <br />• more <br />find0fas <br />• site map <br />• help <br />• phone boot <br />• maps <br />• archives <br />660p eel <br />• local coups <br />• newspaper <br />• tickets <br />http:// www. azcentral .comispecialslspecia1061 articles /0722colorado- drought.html 7/27/2004 <br />NEWS SPORTS MONEY ENTERTAINMENT FAMILIES HEALTH FOOD & HOME YES TRAVEL SHOP ESPANOL <br />