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U. S. BURBAU 0]1 RECLAl,Ii.TION REPORT C01JT'D. CHERRY CImL;I FROJLCT, (COIIT IV) "Construction if undertaken should. so far as practicable, be preceded by suitable legal or other procedure to liquidate or quiet conflicting claims." (2) Hater supply studies of the Reclamation Bureau are based on certain assumptions among whioh are, that the Castlewood Reservoir priority of 1889 will be maintained, as an asset of the proposed project. and that return flows within the project may be diverted regardless of priority. The report states: (p.32) "Under the provisions of the Colorado statutes return flow belongs to the stream and to each priority in turn thereon. If this sicuation were to prevail upon construction of the project, recovery of project costs would be limited to those lands which in the first instance diverted developed storage, as direct flcwT rights would command all ordinary and return flows during the irrigation season". prooeeding on the declaration that: "The United States olaims return flOVl on Federal Projects," the Bureau devised a project embraoing 4,295 acres. Not more than 3.000 acres can be supplied. at the rate of required headgate diversion fixed by the Bureau (2.35 acre-feet per acre). by the estimated water supply of substantially 7.000 acre-feet. Thus 1,300 acres of land are proposed to be assessed which. under the Colorado laViS, may receive little if any water, i.e.. no storage water directly from the reservoir, and only that portion of the natural and return flovls "lhich their junior rights might COIllF.Alld, as against davrn- stream senior rights. The claim of the United States to return flows, declared by the Bureau in this project report, is identical with the claim asserted -13~