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12 PAONIA. J:'R,OJECT,' COLORADO Co. is the owner of three-fourths interest in the East Beckwith No.1 Reservoir. This reservoir has a capacity of 430 acre-feet and is located on Lost Lake Slough, a tributary to Anthracite Creek which in turn is tributary to the North Fork River. . . . A large number of water users in the service area of the Fire Moun- tain Co. also have an interest in ditches diverting from Leroux Creek which serye lands lying both above and below the Fire Mountain canal. These water users, over a period of years, have developed about 1,900 acre-feet of storage capacity in 24 small reservoirs on the Leroux Creek watershed. The lower or west end of the area served by the Fire Mountain canal is covered by a complex system of ditches diverting from Leroux Creek. Irrigation distribution facilities are adequate for lower lands in the Paonia project area, but the' small amount of late-season water available, although secured from a num- ber of sources of supply, is insufficient for full crop production. The Overland Ditch & Reservoir Co. owns and operates three principal irrigation facilities: the 2,660 acre-foot Overland Reservoir . on Cow Creek, a tributary of West Muddy Creek; the 22.5-mile upper Overland ditch extending, from the Overland Reservoir across the headwaters of Hubbard and Terror Creek to the Leroux Creek drain- age; and the 3-mile Overland ditch diverting from Leroux Creek to Redlands Mesa. Water rights are held by the Overland Co. on Cow, Hubbard, Terror, and Leroux Creeks, Both storage and natural-flow water is delivered to stockholders in proportion to the amount of stock held, Lands served by the Overland. Co. extend from below the Fire Mountain canal to the head of Redlands Mesa with a few scattered tracts on the upper section of Leroux and Terror Creeks. The irri- gated lands under the Overland canal have an inadequate water supply and a large area of undeveloped arableland under the cana]" is entirely without water. Because of limited water supply, only a portion of this arable land can be furnished wat,er by the project. Thirty-six small reservoirs with a total capacity of about 3,200 acre-feet are located on the headwaters of Leroux and Terror Creeks. The dams and storage .works for many of these reservoirs were con- structed with teams and scrapers by individual water users or by groups of three or four water users organized as reservoir development companies. The dams are generally of narrow section and the side slopes are as steep as the material used in the construction will stand. These reservoirs, however, .have operated successfully in the past. They:fill each year and all storage water is used on lands in the Paonia project area. Settlement. Settl~ment of the North Fork Valley started in 1880 and develop- ment followed rapidly until about 1900, by which time the late summer natural flow of streams tributarry to the North Fork River had become fully appropriated and settlers with junior appropriations were looking for ways of supplying their lands with supplemental water. As irri- gation works required to utilize the flow in tributary streams were less expensive to construct and maintain than works needed to utilize the flow of the main river, the tributary streams were the first to become fully appropriated or in many cases overappropriated, thereby resulting in serious water shortages in most years. Preliminary sur- veys of reservoir sites indicate that storage in any appreciable amounts on the North Fork watershed would be relatively expensive and too