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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 />WATER RIGHTS DEVELOPMENT <br /> <br />Surface water development within the Horse Creek basin started in 1899. By <br />1919. decreed irrigation water rights had appropriated approximately 700 cfs of the Horse <br />Creek basin streamflow. These appropriations greatly exceed the normal flow of the basin, <br />allowing some of the water rights to divert only during high flood flows. Appropriations <br />for storage rights in the basin began in 1899 and essentially all storage rights within the <br />basin had been decreed by 1919. In 1919, approximately 6,500 acre-feet of storage ri9hts <br />had been appropriated. 2 <br /> <br />Electricity became available in the area in the late 1940's and. as a result. well <br />development for irrigation greatly increased. The number of wells within the basin <br />dramatically increased during the drought of the early 1950's. During the period 1960 to <br />1970, land once primarily used for cattle ranching was converted to irrigation with the <br />development of wells. The amount of groundwater decreed during the 1960's exceeded <br />the total amount of groundwater decreed to all wells during the previous 50 years.3 In the <br />1970's and 1980's, development of wells for irrigation of numerous sod farms resulted in <br />significant additional lands being irrigated. Well pumping in the upstream portion of the <br />Horse Creek basin has resulted in reduced spring flows which contribute to streamflow and <br />groundwater recharge.4 <br /> <br />2Ibid., p. 31. <br />3Ibid., p. 32. <br />4Ibid.. p. 33. <br /> <br />7 <br />