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1042 DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM The Oxford Farmers Ditch Company system is composed of the Oxford Farmers Ditch and all lands and water supply below the ditch. See Plate I. It consists of 8,970 acres surrounding the community of Fowler, Colorado, and is bounded by the Arkansas River on the north, the Oxford Farmers Ditch on the south and the Apishapa River on the east. About 6,000 acres of this area are irrigated. The normal crops are corn, alfalfa, sugar beets, melons, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and onions. Irrigation water for the system comes from three sources: two company-owned adjudicated decrees for diversions from the Arkansas River, a battery of seven company-owned wells and seventy-seven individually- owned wells. The Company is a mutual concern with more than 100 shareholders holding a total of 1193 shares. Individual holdings range from one to 138.7 shares. Each share is supposed to irrigate five acres, but this is not always the case. The Company employs a full time ditch superintendent who is respon- sible for day-to-day operations and one or more ditch riders during the irrigation season to distribute water to the shareholders. When operating with limited water (i.e., the first decree) the Company distributes the water by dividing the ditch into four sections. Each section receives water for two days in rotation. The ditch is about 13 miles long. The headgate is located on the south bank of the Arkansas River near the community of Nespesta and approximately nine miles upstream from Fowler. At the downstream end the ditch spills into the Apishapa River approximately 3~ miles southeast of Fowler. A Parshall flume and recording gage are located about one mile below the headgate. A wasteway op- erates automatically a short distance upstream from the flume to maintain constant flows in the ditch. A recording gage has been installed at the downstream end of the ditch to obtain records of waste water returned to the river. The two adjudicated decrees are for 13.4 cfs (cubic feet per second) dated September I, 1867, and 116 cfs dated February 26, 1887. The water from the first decree is almost always available, but it is not sufficient to ad- equately irrigate 6,000 acres. The second decree is junior to several large decrees downstream and the Company frequently must curtail diversions to pass water to them; in fact, the full decree is available only about 10% of the time. Thirty percent of the total diversion rates are between 14 and 30 cfs. Many years ago, in order to augment its inadequate surface rights, the Company constructed a battery of seven wells in a low area adjacent to the river on the north side of the ditch approximately 0.6 mile downstream from the Parshall flume. Normally the wells are used only when the ditch is op- erating on its first decree. Water is pumped into a single pipeline which discharges directly into the ditch. The maximum pumpage rate for the battery is about 8 cfs, but a reasonable average is about 6 cfs. In addition, there are 77 individually-owned wells in the system. Of these, four are used to irrigate lands outside the system. Yields of the wells range from more than 1000 gpm (gallons per minute) to less than 100 gpm with an average of 316 gpm. Outflow from the system occurs in various forms. A significant amount of water spills into the Apishapa River at the end of the ditch. The major drain - 2 -