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<br />. <br /> <br />Water-storage rights were developed to use more fully the flow not avail- <br />able to direct diversions. Reservoirs, both on-stream and off-stream, were <br />constructed to store water in excess of direct-flow water rights, and stream- <br />flow outside of the irrigation season. Irrigation water is stored for later <br />use during the growing season; municipal and industrial water is stored to <br />meet a constant demand. <br /> <br />There is a legend that a placer miner established the first transmountain <br />diversion in the Arkansas River basin; finding no water left in the stream to <br />run his sluice box, the miner ~alked through a mountain saddle and found a <br />full, flowing stream on the far slope. He dug a ditch through the saddle in <br />the mountain crest to bring this water to his claim. Whatever the initial <br />circumstances, transmountain diversions into the Arkansas River basin began <br />around the turn of the 20th century, and are continuing to be developed today. <br />These diversions vary in size and complexity from open ditches through low <br />spots in the mountain-chain crest, to vast collection systems of tunnels, con- <br />duits, and storage reservoirs, that convey the water from the western slope to <br />a single master tunnel, thence through the Continental Divide to the eastern <br />slope. This complex diversion is possible, because there is unappropriated <br />water in the western part of Colorado. Colorado's western slope is not able <br />to use all its share of water, assigned by the .Upper Colorado River Compact. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Ground water has been used in the basin from the onset of settlement. <br />The earliest settlers dug wells, and later erected windmills; stock wells long <br />have been in use in the uplands. After all the inexpensive, gravity-flow <br />sources of surface water had been fully used, development of large-volume <br />wells for irrigation, municipal, and industrial uses began. Estimated pumpage <br />of ground ~ater in the Arkansas Valley is shown in figure 5, and indicates a <br />drastic increase in ground-water use during the 1950's. Withdrawal from allu- <br />vial aquifers in the basin increased to the point where effects on the river <br />system became a problem. In 1969 the law governing use of water in Colorado <br />was changed, making water rights from aquifers hydraulically connected to <br />streams work in priority with surface~water rights (Radosevich and others, <br />1975). <br /> <br />Water development was not restricted to agricultural purposes. As cities <br />and industries in the valley expanded, water supplies necessarily increased <br />~ith them. The Colorado State Constitution gives preference to domestic and <br />municipal use over industrial and agricultural use. As agricultural land is <br />no longer farmed, the water supply that once served that land is used for <br />other purposes. As technologies and economies continue to change, the priori- <br />ties of water use will continue to change. This change may not always be in <br />one direction--from agricultural use toward municipal and industrial use. The <br />recent national fuel crisis highlighted the fact that synthetic fabrics manu- <br />factured from petroleum products always might not be available readily, and <br />the economy might have to depend on farm-grown fiber. Hydroelectric power,. <br />especially from low-head, run-of-the-river-type generators, increasingly is <br />becoming attractive. Future economic development might change the type of <br />water development in the Arkansas Valley. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />9 <br />