WSP06130

• File Number: 8200.760
• Description: Yampa River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 2/26/1957
• Author: BOR
• Title: Yampa-White Project - Colorado Utah and Wyoming - Reconnaissance Report - February 1957
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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CHAPTER II

BASES FOB ANALYSIS

of physical characteristics of the Wlits. The derivation of the annual
requirement for each Wlit is shoYIl in the ta'ble on the following page.

~Iater rights

The water of the Colorado River Basin is apportioned between the
upper and lower basins by the Colorado River Compact. The compact was
drafted in 1922 and beceme binding on all basin States except Arizona in
1929, and on Arizona in 1944. The compact (Article IIIa) apportions to
each of the upper and lower basins the equivalent of 7,500,000 acre-feet
of consumptive use annually and grants (Article IIIb) the further right
to the lower basin to increase its use by 1,000,000 acre-feet ~Ulue.lly,

The use of vater apportioned the upper basin is further apportioned
to the respective States of the upper basin by the Upper Colorado River
Basin Compact, approved by Congress April 6, 1949. Arizona is granted a
right to the consumptive use of 50,000 acre-feet of water annually and
the remain~ng allotment to the upper basin is apportioned in the follow-
ing percentages: Colorado, 51.75 percent; New Mexico, 11.25 percentj
Utah, 23 percent; and Wyoming, 14 percent. All uses of water in the
upper basin are to be measured in terms of man-made depletions to the
virgin flow of the river at Lee Ferry, Ariz., the divi~ing point between
the upper and 10*'1' basins.

In addition to apportioning overall use of vater in the States of
the upper basin, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact makes some spe-
cific provisions for use of tributary flows. The compact (hrticle XI)
apportions the use of Little Sna.l<e River water between the States of
Colorado and Hyoming and apportions (Article XIII) the use of Yampa River
vater between the States of Colorado and Utah. Plans for Yampa-White
project Wlits have been made subject to these provisions.

Existing water ri~hts in the project area have generally been decreed
on a basis of 1 second-foot of flow for 50 acres of irrigated land, Some
decrees, howe,er, have allowed as much as 1 second-foot of flood-season
water for 10 acres of land. As a result rights of existing water users
in some units, particularly the Hayden ~jesa, Great Northern, and Yellow
Jacket, are in excess of the ideal irrigation requireLlents. Holders of
the rights to surplus water now ma.'te excessive diversions in the spring
in an attempt to build up the ground-water storaGe for late-season use
when stresnflows are inadequ3.te to supply the irrigation nee~. In order
for the unit develoPJl'ents to operate as planned and to ~1m~ optimum
utilization of the water resources, it would be necessary for the water
users in the various units to restrict their use to ideal demand. They
are expected to be willing to make such restrictions after construction
of the units as the storage regulation provided would permit proper dis-
tribution of the water supply thrOugllCUt: the irrigation season and thus
reduce the tendency to apply water when not needed simply because it 'WOuld

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