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<br />b. Among the most senior water rights in the Gunnison River <br />Basin are those attributed to the Uncompahgre Valley Water <br />Users Project -- ie. the Gunnison Tunnel and the Taylor Park <br />Reservoir. This water development, authorized by the United <br />States Congress in 1902, was the first Reclamation Project <br />constructed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and it <br />was developed to provide irrigation water to about 76,000 <br />acres of land in the Uncompahgre Valley. The project <br />includes a direct flow right in the total amount of 1,300 <br />c.f.s. for water to be diverted directly from the Gunnison <br />River through the Gunnison Tunnel to the Uncompahgre Valley. <br />The tunnel was completed in 1912, and the direct flow right <br />has a priority date of 1901. Another important feature of the <br />Uncompahgre Project is the Taylor Park Dam and Reservoir I <br />located on the Taylor River. Said reservoir was constructed <br />in the mid-1930's to provide a supplemental supply of water <br />for the UVWUA when water was no longer available for diversion <br />through the Gunnison Tunnel under the direct flow right. The <br />reservoir is decreed for 111,260 acre feet (its capacity when <br />it spills), and has a total capacity of 106,230 acre feet when <br />it is full without spilling. . Said water is directed for <br />irrigation purposes. <br /> <br />c. Another significant, though more recent, facility <br />located on the Gunnison River is the Aspinall unit (formerly <br />known as the Curecanti Unit) which is comprised of three <br />reservoirs: Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal. The con- <br />struction of this Unit was authorized by Congress through the <br />Colorado River Storage Project Act (CRSPA) which was adopted <br />in 1956. <br /> <br />1) CRSPA was adopted in recognition of the need of <br />certain Upper Basin States (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and <br />Wyoming -- where the headwaters of the Colorado River and <br />its tributaries arise) to provide water to Lower Basin <br />states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) under the 1922 <br />Colorado River Compact [see: Title 37, Article 61 of C.R.S. <br />15 . (1990 Repl. Vol. )] and to provide water to the Country of <br />Mexico under a 1944 Treaty between the United States and <br />Mexico. Under the 1922 Compact, the Upper Basin states <br />must provide 75 million acre feet of water to the Lower <br />Basin states in any 10 year period (or an average of 7.5 <br />million acre feet per year) and the Mexico Treaty requires <br />the United States to provide 1.5 million acre feet of water <br />to Mexico annually from the Colorado River (and the Upper <br />Basin share's said obligation about equally). As a result, <br />the Upper Basin must supply about 8.23 acre feet of water <br />at Lee Ferry (the dividing line between the Upper and Lower <br />Basin states) on an annual basis. Unfortunately for the <br />Upper Basin, the allocation of water between the two basins <br />was based upon inaccurate data which calculated that at <br />least 15 million acre feet of water was produced in the <br />Upper Basin states each year, but in fact the figure is <br />closer to 13 or 14 million acre feet. (see: testimony of <br /> <br />11 <br />