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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 />presence of water in the stream, but also upon the type of right, basin <br />priority, and the nature of other water rights senior to it. Basic <br />assumptions were made regarding the characteristics of the YJWCD water <br />rights and their relationship with other absolute and conditional decrees. <br /> <br />The YJWCD water rights are conditional rights with an adjudication date of <br />1966 and an appropriation date of 1953. These dates establish their <br />priority in the basin. Water rights become absolute once a project has been <br />constructed and the water has been put to beneficial use. Over 400 absolute <br />water rights have been adjudicated on the mainstem of the White River in <br />Colorado, representing the right to divert more than 1000 cfs. Conditional <br />direct flow rights have been adjudicated for over 7000 cfs, while <br />adjudicated conditional storage rights total over 1,890,000 acre-feet. By <br />comparison, the average annual volume of flow in the White River near the <br />Colorado state line is approximately 503,000 acre-feet which translates to a <br />mean daily flow of just under 700 cfs. <br /> <br />YJWCD Water Rights <br />The YJWCD owns several separate water rights to serve water users in the <br />Upper White River Basin. One of the conditional water rights, the Yellow <br />Jacket Canal, is a 1966 right to divert up to 500 cfs from the North Fork of <br />the White River at a point approximately six miles upstream of the <br />confluence with the South Fork. Another right with the same priority <br />provides for 27,991.7 acre-feet of storage at the Ripple Creek Reservoir <br />site. Of this storage capacity, 24,500 acre-feet is designated as active <br />storage, and the remalnlng 3491.7 acre-feet is dead storage. Storage <br />provisions for the Lost Park Reservoir site, located on Lost Creek, are also <br />included in the decree. These allow a total of 33,541.3 acre-feet of <br />storage, with 30,757.5 acre-feet being active storage and 2783.8 acre-feet <br />designated dead storage. The appropriation date stated in the water court <br />decree (Case No. 1269) is November 9, 1953, and the adjudication date is <br />July 20, 1966. The rights in this decree may be subject to a stipulation <br />between the YJWCD and Rocky Mountain Power Company (ROMPOCO). A copy of the <br />decree and stipulation appears in Appendix Section C. <br /> <br />11-9 <br />