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Colorado Water April 2005
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Colorado Water April 2005
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Publications
Year
2005
Title
Colorado Water
Author
Water Center of Colorado State University
Description
April 2005
Publications - Doc Type
Newsletter
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were as well understood by the public as at present. <br />The distribution of water in some of the districts is <br />surrounded by almost insurmountable difficulties, <br />requiring great tact and experience on the part of the <br />commissioners, superintendent, and state engineer <br />in order to avoid personal conflicts or litigation. <br />Even then in time of drought there is more or less <br />unavoidable friction, and injunctions have been <br />issued restraining the state engineer and his as- <br />sistants from interference. Each year, however, as <br />the irrigators come to understand the necessity and <br />value of state interference and questions of detail <br />are settled some of the obstacles are overcome, but <br />at the best there are many hardships connected with <br />the matter. <br />ply is limited and that we are most in need of our grace and <br />patience and our willingness to be governed by the law when <br />the inevitable truth of living in the and country settles back <br />in our midst. <br />We try our best to remember that the good years will be fol- <br />lowed by the lean years. Smart and efficient water conserva- <br />tion is always necessary in all years. Storage is the primary <br />means by which Twentieth Century water uses, most notably <br />by municipalities, have been able to come onto the river <br />without injury to other water uses. <br />In the 1901 Congressional hearings regarding the bill that <br />became the 1902 Reclamation Act, Congressman Shafroth <br />of Colorado spoke about the over - appropriated South Platte <br />Basin and the need for reservoirs. <br />Now, the Platte River in Colorado has been appro- <br />priated eight times over, and on account of the in- <br />crease of the population the claims on the waters of <br />the Platte River have increased eight times beyond <br />what it is possible for the <br />river with its ordinary flow <br />to supply, and there is not <br />a drop of water for any <br />new lands ... (I)f you <br />construct reservoirs and <br />particular ditches <br />this deprivation <br />may mean the <br />almost complete <br />Ioss of the results <br />of the season's <br />work and the jeopardizing of trees, shrubs, and <br />other plants upon which years of care have been <br />bestowed. Of course there are many complaints, and <br />state officials are accused of partiality and unfair- <br />ness by some of the sufferers, but the community as <br />a whole sees in this the unavoidable operations of <br />necessary laws. The doctrine of priority of rights <br />has been so well established that it is not probable <br />that it can be overthrown, although individuals often <br />attack it bitterly. <br />Owing to unusual droughts and the shutting down <br />of certain canals and ditches there were heavy <br />losses of crops during the census year, especially <br />under some of the larger canals. The condition of <br />farmers thus deprived of water was deplorable, from <br />the fact they had mortgaged their property to pay <br />for the water rights and paid in advance their annual <br />rates. By being deprived of water their crops were <br />not profitable and interest and partial payments on <br />the mortgage could not be made. <br />Id. at 94. <br />One hundred and ten years later we are reminded once again <br />by the drought of the early 21 It Century that our water sup- <br />As the testimony unfolded before Congress, it turned out that <br />firming up the water supply for existing agricultural lands <br />was even more compelling than breaking out new lands into <br />irrigation throughout the West. Direct flow ditches simply <br />could not bring the crops in during many years because the <br />natural hydrograph of mountain watersheds supplies snow- <br />melt to the streams only during the early part of the growing <br />season. <br />Let us remember that the Colorado Big- Thompson Reclama- <br />tion Project resulted from the drought of the 1930s and came <br />on line in the drought of the 1950s. It's purpose was to bring <br />a supplemental supply of water into the South Platte Basin <br />from the Colorado River Basin. The term "supplemental" is <br />highly cautionary. This new water supply was largely meant <br />to firm up the agricultural rights of water- short systems in <br />
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