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<br />II <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 />Section 5: Water Rights in the Study Area <br /> <br />Water rights were an important aspect of the recent study. Any plan for irrigation <br />improvements in the primary study area (the portion of the Tongue Creek basin <br />defined earlier) could not infringe upon any of the existing rights for diversion or <br />storage. The examination of water availability and water use in the neighboring <br />basins of Leroux Creek and the Overland Ditch and Reservoir System, and the <br />evaluation of these basins as potential sources of transbasin diversion, took into <br />account water rights because the alternative plans could not infringe on water <br />rights in these two basins, <br /> <br />Water rights are granted as direct flow diversion rights or reservoir storage rights, <br />The priority of a right in relation to other rights is based on the dates of <br />adjudication and appropriation. The earliest adjudication date of a water right in <br />the Tongue Creek basin, and thus the right with the highest priority, was 1889 when <br />a court adjudicated a right for diversion of 20 cfs from Surface Creek to Alfalfa <br />Ditch. Some of the quantity decreed to Alfalfa Ditch was later transferred to <br />Butte and Forest Ditches and to the Cedaredge and Orchard City pipelines, which <br />enjoy the same priority as the original decree in 1889 to Alfalfa Ditch, <br /> <br />In the Tongue Creek basin there are now approximately 6~0 decreed rights for <br />direct flow diversion and reservoir storage under District ~o jurisdiction, Some <br />large diversion rights are owned by ditch companies or irrigation districts which <br />were established by individuals who transferred their rights to the company or <br />district, mainly in order to share construction and maintenance costs, Many of the <br />ditch companies have obtained supplemental diversion rights in addition to their <br />original rights. Diversion rights held by one individual or company range from <br />amounts as small as 0.1 cfs to the largest right of 85,~ cfs, which corresponds to <br />Alfalfa Ditch, <br /> <br />By agreement among the owners of the numerous headwater reservoirs on Grand <br />Mesa, the reservoirs are operated by the Grand Mesa Water Users' Association, <br />The Association notifies the water commissioner when releases are going to be <br />made and for whom they are intended, <br /> <br />1I-8 <br />