PUB00004

• Year: 2003
• Title: Gunnison Basin Water: No Panacea for the Front Range
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Author: Land and Water Fund
• Description: Gunnison Basin Water: No Panacea for the Front Range
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

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Glossary

Colorado River Compact: a contract between Upper Basin States (New
Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah) and Lower Basin States (Arizona, Nevada,
and California) that apportions water from the Colorado River.

Upper Basin Compact: a contract that apportions Colorado River water
among the Upper Basin States.

Conditional Water Right: the legal preservation of a priority date that pro-
vides a water user time to develop his or her water right, but reserves a more senior
date (the date upon which the holder first manifested an intent to appropriate). A
conditional right becomes absolute when water is actually put to a beneficial use.

Conjunctive Use: the combined use of surface water and groundwater to
achieve the optimal beneficial use; often used in areas where available water
resources have been nearly fully developed and/or appropriated. Conjunctive use
involves carefully coordinating the storage, timing and delivery of both resources.
Typically, surface water is used to the fullest extent possible when flows are available,
while ground water is retained to meet demands when surface flows are low. Benefits
of conjunctive use may include: better management capabilities with less waste;
greater flood control capabilities; greater control over surface reservoir releases; and
more efficient operation of pump plants and other facilities.

Cubic Feet/Second (cfs): a measurement of volume of water passing by a
fixed point each second. One cfs is equal to 7.48 gallons per second, 448.8 gallons
per minute, and 646,300 gallons per day (equal to 1.98 acre-feet per day).

Decree: an official document issued by a water court which defines the
amount, priority, use, and location of a water right. The document serves as a man-
date to the State Engineer to administer the water rights involved in accordance with
the decree.

Depletion: the amount of water lost to the river system by the exercise of a
water right; diversion of a particular water right is often many times greater than its
depletion because much of the water diverted later returns to the river, either through
surface run-off or underground seepage.

Depletion Allowance: in the Gunnison Basin, the additional amount of
water which the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District is entitled to
deplete without being "called out" by the Aspinall Unit's 1957 water right.

Diligence: see "Due Diligence."

Ditch: a trench cut into the surface of the ground to transport water from a
stream, canal, or storage facility to an actual point of use.

Diversion: removal of water from its natural course or location; or controlling

.54.

The Land and Water Fund of the Rockies