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assuming certain conditions are met. If those conditions are not met then the call amount can increase to <br />the full 2,260 cfs. This call curtails additional development above the RICD reach during much of the <br />irrigation season. <br />5.2.1.2 Crystal River Calls <br />The Crystal River is internally controlled by both senior irrigation water rights and CWCB instream flow <br />water rights. Senior irrigation water rights can command the entire river during the late irrigation season, <br />often drying the river to a trickle above its confluence with the Roaring Fork. Historically the irrigation <br />rights have not placed calls, although this has more been a matter of internal agreement rather than water <br />availability. <br />The CWCB instream flow water rights near the mouth of the Crystal are seldom satisfied in the late <br />irrigation season because of senior irrigation diversions. In the non - irrigation season the instream flow <br />rights are generally satisfied except in drier than normal years such as 1977 and 2002 when stream flow <br />can fall below the decreed amount in January — March. <br />As a practical matter, additional water development in the Crystal River basin must rely on; 1) water <br />stored in priority during runoff and, 2) dry up of land irrigated by senior irrigation water rights. The <br />prospect of both significant water storage and significant new demands that rely on the storage are low. <br />New demand in the basin will be primarily from dispersed residential development that will rely on either <br />exempt wells, small augmentation plans or existing municipal / domestic water rights. <br />There is a need for storage in the basin, to be used in lieu of small augmentation ponds, but limited <br />realistic opportunity. A Study authorized by the Colorado River Water Conservation District (CRWCD) in <br />1998, the Crystal River Basin Small Reservoir Study reviewed several storage sites within the basin <br />including construction of Yank Creek Reservoir on Thomson Creek and expansion of Beaver Reservoir <br />on the upper Crystal at Marble. Yank Creek has limited utility as Thompson Creek is tributary to the <br />Crystal low in the basin and the there is limited exchange capacity above Thompson Creek. Beaver <br />Lake, owned by the Colorado Department of Wildlife, could be expanded to provide approximately 100 <br />AF of yield; however this represents the upper end of realistic storage opportunity in the basin. <br />Dry-up under senior irrigation water rights may continue in the Crystal River basin, particularly in the lower <br />basin near the Town of Carbondale (most of the irrigated area is in the lower basin). However, this <br />change of use will not utilize any of Colorado's allocation under the Colorado River Compact but merely <br />exchange historical agricultural consumptive use for new beneficial uses. <br />24 <br />