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<br />001999 <br /> <br />Initial Infommtion Package <br />Williams Fork Hydroelectric Project <br />FERC Project No. 2204 <br /> <br />In order for Denver Water to improve diversions from its collection system in the <br />Williams Fork, Fraser and Blue River basins, Denver Water enlarged the original <br />6,623 acre-foot reservoir to store and supply additional replacement water. This <br />added replacement supply allows Denver Water to continually divert water within <br />its collection system without injuring senior water decree holders downstream. <br />The new enlarged concrete thin arch dam was constructed over a portion of the <br />original 1941 dam (photo 3.3.2). Construction of the enlarged dam began in 1956 <br />and was complete by 1959. This enlarged reservoir stores most water during the <br />high spring runoff season, typically from about mid-April through mid-July, to be <br />released for replacement primarily in the late summer through winter months. <br /> <br />Denver Water has decreed water rights in the upper and lower Williams Fork <br />watershed. Denver Water's upper and lower basin water right decrees are junior <br />to Excel Energy's Shoshone hydroelectric plant near Glenwood Springs and <br />agricultural diversion facilities near Grand Junction. These active senior water <br />decree holders ordinarily "ca1l3" out the entire Colorado River, including the <br />Williams Fork River, between September and April. Therefore, because Denver <br />Water holds a junior water right, it can only divert from the Williams Fork basin <br />during the high flow months when the senior water decrees are satisfied. <br /> <br />Water is released from Williams Fork Reservoir to replace out-of-priority <br />diversions of the Roberts Tunnel, Williams Fork and Fraser Collection Systems. <br />This operation is known as an "exchange4". Additionally, water stored in <br />Williams Fork Reservoir is also released for water owed to the Bureau's Green <br />Mountain Reservoir in years when Green Mountain Reservoir does not fill due to <br />diversions at Dillon Reservoir and the Roberts Tunnel. This operation is called a <br />"substitution5". Exchanges and substitutions will be jointly referred to as <br />"replacements" through the remainder of this document. <br /> <br />Because Denver Water's decrees in the Blue River basin are junior in "prioritl" <br />to the Bureau's Green Mountain Reservoir, Denver Water's ability to divert at <br />Dillon Reservoir would be limited by the natural streamflow and the Bureau's <br /> <br />3 Call: The exercise of a senior water right holder of "calling" for his or her waler rights. requiring upstream junior <br />water right holders to allow waler to flow to the senior righl holder. <br /> <br />· Exchange: A process by which water. under cenain conditions. may be divened out-of-priority at one point by <br />replacing it with a like amount of water at another point. <br /> <br />5 Substitution: A procedure in which an upstream water user is pennitted to divert water belonging to a <br />downstream water user. The upstream llser repays the downstream user by providing an equivalent amount of <br />water from another replacement source to meet the obligation of the downstream user. A substitution differs from <br />an ex.change in that the replacement source is not provided directly to the downstream user, but instead is <br />provided to meet the obligations of the downstream user at a later point in time. <br /> <br />6 Priority: The seniority progression of water rights based on date of adjudication, or sometimes dales of|appropriation. A senior water right is entitled to be completely satisfied before a junior water right may divert or <br />store any water. <br /> <br />6 <br />