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Page 1 of 1 <br />Miller, Steve <br />From: Loretta Lohman [lorettalohman @comcast.net] <br />Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 8:33 AM <br />To: Dave Merritt; Reagan Waskom; Miller, Steve <br />Subject: irrigation and green mountain <br />Irrigators work to protect dwindling water supplies <br />September 2004 <br />U.S. Water News Online <br />PALISADE, Colo. -- Two of the Western Slope's largest irrigation districts plan to cut how much they take from Green <br />Mountain Reservoir to stretch water supplies amid a fifth year of drought. <br />Grand Valley Irrigation Co. and Orchard Mesa Irrigation District intend to cut their take from the reservoir on the <br />Colorado River so they will have enough water to send farmers through the end of the growing season in October. <br />Grand Valley Irrigation District manager Phil Bertrand said he would do the same if he has to. <br />"I think it will be a shocker for people to realize we could exhaust the historic (water supply) in Green Mountain by <br />some time in October," said Dick Proctor, Grand Valley Irrigation Co.'s manager. <br />"We're looking down the gun barrel of 2002 as far as flows," said Scott Hummer, a state Division of Water Resources <br />commissioner. "If they weren't making releases from the reservoirs, there would hardly be any water in the system at <br />all." <br />The irrigation districts can by law call for more water from the reservoir, but they fear their supply would run out before <br />final deliveries to winter wheat and fall barley fields. <br />"It's the next year's crop we're trying to save," Proctor said. <br />This is the third time in four years that water levels at the federally -owned Green Mountain Reservoir have been low. <br />Under a deal with the federal government, Denver Water will have to send 26,439 acre feet of water to the Western <br />Slope. In wet years, Denver Water can keep water in Dillon Reservoir that would normally go to Green Mountain <br />Reservoir, but, in dry years, it must reimburse Green Mountain. <br />