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There is a need for a rural water system to provide an adequate quantity of good quality drinking <br /> water in the eastern half of LaPlata County. <br /> There are two sources of water for the rural system, Lemon Reservoir or Vallecito Reservoir. <br /> Lemon Dam is also a bureau of Reclamation facility on the Florida River but does not have water <br /> right decrees nor a contract with the Federal Government that allows domestic water usage. The <br /> Vallecito Reservoir decree includes domestic usage as does the contract with the Federal <br /> Government (see the Water Rights section). Therefore, the only existing source of water for a <br /> rural water system is Vallectio Reservoir. <br /> PRID plans to utilize a small amount of the existing irrigation supply, approximately 1% to 2% <br /> of the average annual supply of the reservoir (the ultimate water use in about 50 years), for <br /> domestic water. The facilities to divert water from Vallecito and treat the water will be owned by <br /> PRID; PRID will sell treated water to the Vallecito Water Company. The funds from sale of <br /> water at domestic rates will provide a revenue stream for improvement of the ditch systems to <br /> more efficiently use the irrigation water supplies. <br /> PRID will sell water to the Vallecito Water Company which has been formed to distribute and <br /> sell water to individual homes and bulk water users in domestic service area, which includes all o <br /> f the PRID service area an additional area between the Florida and Animas Rivers. The <br /> Company is presently in the process of signing users to contracts. <br /> Table 1 in Appendix E, shows the estimated water diversion and consumptive use through the <br /> • <br /> year 2050. In 2050 the annual diversion is estimated to be 3,000 acre-feet and 450 acre-feet of <br /> consumptive use. <br /> Most of the homes in the rural water system will use water for in house purposes, there will be <br /> little if any outside usage. The standard consumptive use rate for rural homes on leach fields is <br /> 15% of the water used from the rural water system. Most of the water returns to the stream <br /> system through the ground water table. The consumptive use amount is based on 5% loss in the <br /> home and 10% through the leach field. The new consumptive use will be significantly less than <br /> the historic irrigation consumptive use (450 versus 1,880 acre-feet) because irrigation consumes <br /> far more water per acre-foot of diversion than domestic usage. There will be much more return <br /> flow to the stream system with the domestic system than presently occurs. <br /> 2 <br />