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6 0011:J3 A JOURNEY DOWN THE RIVER PART 1: THE HEADWATERS IN COLORADO THE SAN WIS VALLEY, with its na- tural beauty and sunny climate, has attracted people for centu- ries. In the middle 18oos, the Valley experienced a population boom as new seUlers arrived from the south and east. Plows began turning over large expanses of the fertile valley floor, and miles of dltches were constructed to irrigate this arid land, Several major headgates were located on the Rio Grande mainstem downstream of Del Norte, delivering water to thousands of acres on both sides of the river. The largest of these dltches, the RIo Grande Canal, rece.ived a right to divert 1,700 cubic feet per second (cfs) to serve scores of local farmers. Diversion works, both large and small, were also constructed along the Conejos RIver, as well as on other tributaries of the RIo Grande, By the turn of the century, surface waters of the San Luis Valley were fully appropriated and shortages were fre- quently experienced toward the end of the irrigation season. Fanners in the area wished to build reservoirs for stor- ing spring runoff to accommodate late season needs and to carry over storage from wet years into times of drought. The United States government, how- ever, would not aUow them to do so. In 1896, the U.S, Department of the Interior had placed a moratorium on granting rights-of-way for dams in the rivers and streams of the Rio Grande basin. The moratorium responded to Mexico's protest over the loss of historic flows to new water users in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. In 1906, however, a treaty was reached whereby Mexico was to receive an annual delivery of 60,000 acre feet (af) of water, with Elephant A primary driving force in water use and management in the San Luis Valley is the Rio Grande Compact. Butte Dam to be constructed to help assure sufficient supply. Upon settlement of this international controversy;. the Department of the Interior partially removed the moratorium on private dam construc- tion, but only for those projects that were designed to augment water rights that existed prior to 1903. The government did not want to allow reservoirs to be built that would open additional upstream lands to irriga- tion and thereby potentially rob Ele- phant Butte Reservoir of its lawful water right. Nonetheless, with rights of way being granted to some extent, existing users throughout the basin were now free to sponsor and build new reservoirs in order to supple- ment their pre-1903 water rights. RESERVOIRS IN THE SAN LUIS VALLEY The partial lifting of the moratorium initiated a flurry of activity in the San Luis Valley and, by 1913, several dams had been built ,in the RIo Grande headwaters of Colorado. The Rio Grande Reservoir was constructed on the mainstem of the river by the Farmers Union (now called the San Luis Valley Irrigation District) to hold about 51,DOOaf to supplement late season irrigation needs of pre-1903 rights. Two other projects were located on mountain tributaries by the Santa Maria Ditch and Reservoir Company' Continental Reservoir with a usable capacity of about 28,000 af, and Santa Maria Reservoir with 45,000 af of storage, These and other smaller projects were initiated and built by local interests with no federal money provided. San Luis Valley water users hoped that once Texas, New Mexico! and Colorado reached an agreement over apportioning the flow of the Rio Grande, that the federal Bureau of Reclamation would provide assis. tance in building a mainstem reser- voir for the benefit of the Valley, These hopesl however, proved fruit- less. The RIo Grande Compact of 1938, ratified by the three states and Congress in 1939, allocated the Rio Grande in accordance with levels of depletions caused by uses as they had existed in 1929 (the year in which a temporary compact had been reached,) Due in large part to com- pact related constraints on new depletions in the San Luis Valley, no mainstem reservoir projects were built to store additional waters in Col- orado, Although Congress in 1940 did authorize construction of the 1 million af Wagon Whee! Gap Dam riear Creedel no funds were ever appropriated to the Bureau of Red a- mation for its construction. To date, the only federal reservoir built in the Colorado portion of the Rio Grande basin is Platoro Reservoir, completed in 1951, This reservoir has " t