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<br />I <br />I. <br />,I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />'I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />George, Ward, Cottonwood, Kiser and Youngs Creeks (tributaries of Tongue Creek) <br />and Surface Creek. Between the elevations of 10,000 and II ,000 feet in the <br />headwaters area, approximately 90 small privately-owned reservoirs have been <br />constructed by holders of storage rights, Most of the reservoirs were originally <br />built in the last century by early settlers in the lower basin who soon found natural <br />streamflows insufficient for crop irrigation requirements. <br /> <br />A typical reservoir in the headwaters area consists of a small earthfill dam at the <br />outlet of a natural lake, The dam is operated to impound water in the spring, when <br />snowmelt runoff is abundant, and to release the water later in the growing season <br />when water is scarce. Nearly all the reservoir owners belong to the Grand Mesa <br />Water Users Association, which acts as a clearinghouse for exchanges of water <br />among reservoir owners, The combined storage capacity of all the small reservoirs <br />is estimated to be on the order of 25,000 acre-feet of water. Most of the land in <br />the headwaters area is publicly-owned forest land managed by the U,S. Forest <br />Service. <br /> <br />Two areas of secondary concern in this study were neighboring basins to the east of <br />the basin of Tongue and Surface Creeks: The Leroux Creek basin and the <br />watershed of the Overland Ditch and Reservoir System, These two basins are <br />within the purview of this study because they are potential sources of water for <br />transfer to the basin of Tongue and Surface Creeks if the water resources within <br />the basin are insufficient to meet crop irrigation requirements, No water could be <br />transferred out of the Leroux Creek or Overland Ditch basins until all of the water <br />rights within those basins had been met in full. On the average, Overland Ditch has <br />more than twice as much surplus water potentially available for transfer as Leroux <br />Creek and in dry years, Overland Ditch has more than four times as much surplus <br />water potentially available for transfer as Leroux Creek, <br /> <br />Leroux Creek and its principal tributary, Cow Creek, originate in the upper Leroux <br />Creek basin, Leroux Creek flows in a generally southward direction until reaching <br />the North Fork of Gunnison River. <br /> <br />The Overland Ditch and Reservoir System is an eXlstmg project for irrigation of <br />Redlands Mesa. The ditch has an upper and lower portion. A schematic of the <br /> <br />11-2 <br />