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hold a 1946 priority (a storage right of 252,678 acre-feet and a direct flow right of 788 cfs). Thus Green Mountain has a better legal right to Blue River water than Dillon. The parties also agreed, however, that Denver could use its storage on Williams Fork to release water to the Colorado River in exchange for Blue River water it could store in Dillon. More recently. Denver helped finance construction of the Colorado River Water Conservation District's Wolford Mountain Reservoir on Muddy Creek, north of KremmIing. Denver will use its share of the yield of Wolford Mountain as releases to substitute for Green Mountain water it stores in Dillon Reservoir and transports to the Front Range. In the efforts to settle the Orchard Mesa Check case, three interests have emerged as those potentially most affected: the so-called "preferred beneficiaries" of Green Mountain water, the Green Mountain contract water users, and the oil shale interests.44 Preferred beneficiaries are those West Slope users with water rights that were diverting water by 1977 - considered to total 66,000 acre-feet of water, Contract users are those holding contract rights for delivery of water out of Green Mountain. About 10,000 acre-feet of water has been committed to date out of a designated pool of 20,000 acre-feet in Green Mountain. Oil shale interests generally hold junior conditional water rights with an appropriation date of 1955 or later. Orchard Mesa is seeking approval to operate the check only as necessary to meet the senior GVrC right of 520 cfs, not the "enlargement" of about 120 cfs with a priority date junior to that of Orchard Mesa. In the 1980s, Orchard Mesa determined that the added expenses of operating the check only made sense when it was legally required to do so, and the Colorado State Engineer agreed that OMID was not obligated to operate the check in other circumstances. Studies indicate, however, that operation of the check reduces the need for releases from Green Mountain Reservoir by as much as 30,000 acre-feet in a dry year.4S Water uses in the Grand Valley affect upstream uses in the Colorado River Basin. Compensatory storage facilities for two Bureau of Reclamation projects, Green Mountain .. Personal communication from Glenn Porzak, Attorney, Holme Robens &. Owen, December 19, 1994. " Colorado River Water Conservation District, Proposed Solution to the Orchard Mesa "Check" Problem, Draft, 9/22/88. 19