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<br />. <br /> <br />WATER RIGHTS <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The purpose of Rio Grande Reservoir is to provide supplemental <br />water for irrigation during the late summer. The SLVID owns the <br />Farmers Union Canal which is used for the irrigation of about 45,000 <br />acres of land located about 80 miles downstream of Rio Grande Reser- <br />voir. The mode of irrigation in the San Luis Valley Irrigation <br />District is complex. Water diverted from the Rio Grande is used <br />directly through crop irrigation and indirectly through recharge of <br />the aquifer in the San Luis Valley. <br />The San Luis Valley Irrigation District has numerous storage and <br />direct flow water rights, as shown in Table 8. The storage decrees <br />have historically enabled Rio Grande Reservoir to be at least partly <br />filled during the spring runoff each year. Since Rio Grande Compact <br />administration began in 1968, the amount of water available for <br />storage has been greatly reduced. Exercise of direct flow and <br />storage water rights has been partially curtailed to ensure delivery <br />of New Mexico's allotment of flow under the Compact. <br />The Rio Grande Canal Water Users Association and the San Luis <br />Valley Irrigation District have made applications to the water court <br />in Case Nos. W-3979 and W-2980 to change their water rights. They <br />plan to obtain alternate points of diversion for storage of direct <br />flow water rights in Rio Grande, Santa Maria and Continental reser- <br />voirs. The combined storage capacity of these reservoirs is 115.353 <br />acre-feet. Water released from the reservoirs would be transported <br />down the Rio Grande to the headgates of the Rio Grande Canal and <br />Farmers Union Canal. Generally. water will be stored during the peak <br />runoff season (typically'May and June) and released later in the same <br />irrigation season (typically July and August). <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />-28- <br />