BOARD01872

• Board Meeting Date: 9/27/1999
• Description: Colorado River Basin Issues - Interior Department's Indian Water Rights Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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(commonly referred to as the Decker Report, named after E. L. Decker, the Tribe's water rights
engineer) was originally prepared in 1960 and submitted to the Utah State Engineer. Both the
1980 and the 1990 versions of the proposed compact are based upon this tabulation. The 1990
version, ratified by Congress but not the Tribe or State, summarizes the Tribe's total irrigable
acreage, priority dates, maximum allowable diversion and depletion requirement for each of the
irrigable land groups by stream system, and delivery schedules by stream systems. Also
recognized is an additional I 0,000 acre foot depletion, with an 1861 priority, for municipal and
industrial use by the Tribe. The irrigable acreage is reduced by 7% from the Decker Report to
account for houses, bams, fences, rights of way, ditches and other structures. The acreages and
water rights included in the 1990 version of the compact are summarized as follows:

Group I lands: Lands included in the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project with water rights certified
by the State and decreed by the Federal Court, totaling 55,077 acres. Of the total acres, 22,878
acres are served from Lakefork River; 438 acres are served from Yellowstone River; 18,721
acres are served from Uinta River; and 13,040 acres are served from Whiterocks River.
Diversions and depletions for these lands are quantified at 174,531 and 109,306 acre feet
respectively.

Group 2 lands: Lands included in the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project, and the townsite of
Duchesne, with water rights certified by the Stale totaling 16,713 acres served by the Duchesne
River. Diversions and depletions for these lands are quantified at 69,240 and 34,620 acre feet
respectively.

Group 3 lands: Lands that are or can be served from the Duchesne River through the facilities of
the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project but that are )1ot within the project for which federal reserved
water rights are claimed, totaling 1,037 acres, Diversions and depletions for these lands are
quantified at 4,148 and 2,074 acre feet respectively.

Group 4 lands: Lands found to be productive and economically feasible to irrigate from privately
constructed ditch systems diverting from the Duchesne River or its tributaries above the
Pahcease Canal, totaling 1,376 acres. Diversions and depletions for these lands are quantified at
5,504 and 2,752 acre feet respectively,

Group 5 lands: Lands which have been found to be productive and economically feasible to
irrigate and are proposed to be developed within the Central Utah Project. Water rights for these
lands are transferred under the 1990 version of the Compact to the Green River. Diversions and
depletions are quantified at 113,378 and 57,948 acre feet respectively.

Water rights for the Groups 1-5 lands all maintain an October 3,1861 priority date, the earliest
priority date in the Green River Basin in Utah,

Group 6 lands: Lands lying east of Green River for which state water applications have been

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