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<br />other hand, gradual accumulation of agricultural water shares by <br />a municipality in proximity to a ditch system, through annexation <br />policies like those of Greeley, obtains a surer result and <br />creates a better relationship between farmers and cities. <br /> <br />conservation of water during spring runoff, through <br />carefully planned and located new storage, continues to be a <br />viable and cost-effective alternative to piecemeal disassembly of <br />agricultural reservoir and ditch companies by municipalities. <br />Water exchanges between municipalities and agricultural <br />companies, where the municipalities store out-of-priority and <br />release or replace water at the time of ditch company need, is <br />preferable to drying-up agricultural land. <br /> <br />Dry-up of irrigated lands is the usual result of a <br />change-of-water-right proceeding from agricultural to municipal <br />use. Otherwise, continued irrigation of the same land <br />historically supplied by agricultural ditch company shares would <br />cons~itute an illegal expanded use of the water right. Keeping <br />the irrigated lands in production therefore requires a <br />replacement water source that does not cause injury to other <br />water rights. <br /> <br /> <br />Although dry-up of irrigated lands usually occurs in <br />agricultural water transfers, exchange and augmentation plans, on <br />the other hand, involve creative arrangements to supply the needs <br />of farmers and cities alike. In a semi-arid state like Colorado, <br />exchanges ordinarily involve storage because of the relatively <br />few months in which water becomes available in the natural <br />streams. In Wvominq v. Colorado, 259 U.S. 419, 458 (1922), the <br />United States Supreme Court, referring to the Cache la Poudre <br />River and other Colorado and wyoming streams, observed that the <br />"flow in all streams varies greatly in the course of the year, <br />being highest in May, June, and July, and relatively very low in <br />other months. There is also a pronounced variation from year to <br />year." In 1901, Elwood Mead, testifying before Congress on what <br /> <br />-12- <br />