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Background <br />Operation of Grand Valley Diversions 1 <br />History <br />The most senior water rights serving the Grand Valley (both sides of the Colorado River <br />from just above Palisade to near the Utah border) have appropriations dating from the <br />1880's. Private citizens, mutual ditch companies, and irrigation districts constructed a <br />network of diversions, canals, and laterals to serve the area before the United States <br />Reclamation Service built the Grand Valley Project. These early water rights, together with <br />rights held by the United States for the Project, make up what is known as the "Cameo call" <br />on the Colorado River. <br />Grand Valley Diversions and the "Cameo Call" <br />This accumulation of water rights just below the USGS gaging station on the Colorado River <br />near Cameo serves as a control on future water development upstream throughout the basin. <br />The "Cameo call" must be examined in any assessment of water availability upstream, and is <br />of primary concern when determining amounts of stored water required for replacement for <br />transmountain diversions or in -basin developments. The Cameo group of absolute rights has <br />a variety of priority dates and diversion amounts, reflecting a long history of project <br />consolidation. For the purposes of this report, only diversion capacities were used. No <br />attempt was made to reconcile the decreed amounts of the water rights with diversion <br />records. <br />There are three major organizations supplying irrigation water from the Colorado River to <br />the Grand Valley area: (See schematic diagram on the next page.) <br />1) GRAND VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY <br />- Private irrigation company serving approximately 40,000 acres north of the <br />Colorado River. <br />- Gravity system, no storage. <br />- Holds the most senior right in the Cameo group (520 cfs). <br />- Relies heavily on Green Mountain Reservoir (GMR) storage to supply water to <br />its junior 120 -cfs right. <br />The GVIC junior right (120 cfs) is senior to several major projects, most of which have <br />replacement storage available in GMR. <br />' Colorado River Water Conservation District, Draft Report PROPOSED SOLUTION TO THE ORCHARD <br />MESA CHECK PROBLEM, September 22, 1988. Information in this report is taken from the section titled <br />Operation of Grand Valley Diversions - History up to the section titled Impacts on the 15 -Mile Reach. <br />