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J <br />N <br />Z <br />U_ <br />y <br />O <br />O <br />ran out of water late in the year, local <br />municipalities had limited water supply <br />options for future growth, and the Ute <br />Mountain Ute Tribe had no way of pro- <br />viding water to their reservation. <br />On the advice of Congressman Wayne <br />Aspinall, Cortez Bootstraps, the area's <br />economic development council, formed <br />the Dolores Water Conservancy District <br />in November of 1961. By 1968, the <br />District had successfully obtained fed- <br />eral authorization for the Dolores Project <br />under the Colorado River Storage Project <br />Act. The project— centered on construc- <br />tion of McPhee dam and reservoir —was <br />proposed in part to resolve Indian water <br />right claims, to supplement existing irri- <br />gation systems, open new lands to cultiva- <br />tion, provide drinking water, and increase <br />instream flows for fish and wildlife in the <br />lower Dolores River. <br />Project construction started in <br />1980, and water was delivered to the <br />town of Cortez and the Montezuma <br />Valley Irrigation Company six years <br />later. Additional deliveries to 280 non - <br />Indian customers with previously unir- <br />rigated lands in what is known as the <br />"full- service" area northwest of Cortez, <br />were fully available by 1996. The Ute <br />Mountain Utes received domestic water <br />from the project in 1990, and took over <br />their full share of agricultural irrigation <br />water in 1999. <br />As the most recently completed feder- <br />Irrigation of the `full service area' northwest of Cortez (above) did not begin until the late 1980s. <br />Water is delivered to each field through pressurized pipelines. As Colorado's newest federally funded <br />irrigation system, the Dolores Project is also one of the most automated and water -use efficient. From <br />a central office near Cortez, with a keystroke, project employees can regulate any of the check gates, <br />pumps, or deliveries in the entire system (top). <br />DOLORES PROJECT FACTS <br />McPhee Reservoir Active Capacity = Instream Flows for Fish and Wildlife <br />229,000 Acre -feet (AF) Habitat: (23 %) <br />TOTAL = 29, 300 AF <br />Agricultural Irrigation: (70 %) <br />Full Service Area = 55,400 AF <br />Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch <br />Enterprise = 23,400 AF <br />Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company <br />(Supplemental Service) = 13,900 AF <br />TOTAL = 92,500 AF <br />Municipal Water: (7 %) <br />Dolores District = 5,220 AF <br />Town of Cortez = 2,200 AF <br />Ute Mountain Utes = 1,000 AF <br />Town of Dove Creek = 280 AF <br />TOTAL = 8,700 AF <br />HEADWATERS - FALL 20134 13 <br />