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CHAPTER II - DESCRIPTION OF SPONSORING ENTITY <br />The sponsoring entity for WETPACK is the Dolores Water Conservancy DISTRICT <br />(DISTRICT) in Cortez, Colorado. The DISTRICT's organization and financial status is <br />described in this chapter. <br />H.1 TYPE OF ORGANIZATION <br />The Dolores Water Conservancy District was formed in 1961 pursuant to C.R.S. Title 37, Article <br />45. Its purpose is to be the local sponsoring entity for the Dolores River Project, a Federal <br />Bureau of Reclamation Project. Construction of the Project began on September 20, 1989 and <br />conch o October 10, 1999 a span of 20 years. The total cost of the Project totaled $650 <br />Ilion Excluduig apropos mas a -Plata Project, the Dolores Project is the last Federal <br />project authorized and constructed as part of the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1968. <br />The Dolores Project is unique in that it incorporates two purposes that heretofore have <br />traditionally not been part of a USBR project. First, since all of the traditional use of the Dolores <br />River water resource is a trans -basin diversion, prior to construction of McPhee Dam, the <br />Dolores River downstream of the point of diversion was a dry, dead river during the irrigation <br />season. The Dolores Project provides for a fishery release below McPhee Dam, which is the <br />second largest single user of McPhee Reservoir. Second, the Mancos River traverses the Ute <br />Mountain Ute Indian Reservation. The Bureau of Reclamation constructed Jackson Lake and the <br />Mancos River Reclamation Project in the 1950's, disregarding any consideration for the Ute's <br />Winters Doctrine claims to the Mancos River. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was granted 23,400 <br />acre -feet of agriculture water and 1,000 acre feet of domestic water from the Dolores Project, in <br />lieu of the Tribe's claim to the Mancos River. This agreement is part of the Ute Indian Water <br />Rights Settlement Act of 1986. <br />Now that construction of the Project is complete the DISTRICT's primary purpose is to operate, <br />maintain and replace (OM &R) the Project facilities for the benefit of all of the Project's users. <br />In addition the DISTRICT collects all OM &R and debt service fees and distributes them <br />appropriately. <br />Table II -A shows six charts that illustrate various elements about the DISTRICT. Each chart has <br />an explanation text box and are titled: <br />Chart 1 <br />Number of Users per Entity <br />Chart 2 <br />Water Allocations <br />Chart 3 <br />Annual OM &R Assessments <br />Chart 4 <br />Repayment Apportionment <br />Chart 5 <br />Assessed Valuation History <br />Chart 6 <br />Dolores Basin Historical Use <br />3 <br />