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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I judged small enough in comparison to the irrigation demand and the level of detail used to be neglected for the water availability studies. Also no provision has been ~ade for development of future municipal demands, Conditional rights to divert water from Tongue and Surface Creeks are located mainly in the Upper Surface Creek service area, The Grand Mesa Water Conservancy District holds six conditional diversion rights in the name of Gorsuch Feeder Ditch to divert a total of 405 cfs from Dirty George, Ward, Kiser, Young and Surface Creeks, The GM WCD also holds a conditional storage right with 25,000 acre-feet in "Gorsuch Reservoir" listed under Dry Creek in the water rights record with a location in the vicinity of the confluence of Dry Creek and Currant Creek. In the Tongue Creek basin, there are approximately 640 decreed rights to divert water from streams or to store water in reservoirs, Out of the 640, approximately 400 rights are related to the portion of the basin under study. Some large diversion rights are owned by ditch companies or by irrigation districts. They were established by holders of rights who transferred them to the company or district, mainly in order to share costs of constructing irrigation improvements or annual maintenance costs. Many of the ditch companies have obtained supplemental diversion rights in addition to their original amounts. As discussed in Chapter II, the water diverted for irrigation is applied to crops by means of nearly every common irrigation method, Some of the high-elevation wild hay meadows and pastures are irrigated by uncontrolled flooding, Much of the hay and pasture at lower elevations is irrigated by controlled flooding. Orchards, corn and grains are generally furrow irrigated. There are a few central pivot sprinkler irrigation systems, Total diversions, as discussed above in the context of historic diversions, are one aspect of demand for water in the Tongue Creek basin, Another aspect of demand for water is "minimum required diversion" for crops, As defined for purposes of the present study, the minimum required diversions are quantities of diverted water which are necessary to meet monthly consumptive crop water requirements, III-I 2