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. . . EXISTING FACILmES - FLORIDA PROVECT CCONTlNUEDJ 4 holders in the Project area and a portion would be Project water. Currently, a portion of the "lost" water is re-diverted for use by both Project and non-Project water users and provides instream flows in the Florida River. The "lost" water is the major source of recharge for domestic wells in the Florida Mesa area and the only source of water for the wetlands that have been created on the Florida Mesa. The water also contributes to the water supply for downstream users along the Animas River such as the cities of Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico. Studies would be required to determine the amount of water that could be "saved" by conservation measures after the mitigation requirements are met. F. How water is allocated and how actually used: . Water is allocated to irrigators by individual water petitions as required by the Colorado Water Conservancy Act. Each petition states the Petitioner is entitle to beneficial use of one twenty-five thousand-seven-hundred fortieth (1/25,740) of the annual supply of Project irrigation water available to the District. . There are two types of water available on this Project, Project water and adjudicated water. Project water is measured and allocated by acre-foot at individual canal turnouts and actually taken from storage in Lemon Reservoir. This water is tied to specific parcels of irrigable land within the Project area. The amount of water allocated to the land is determined by the ideal crop demand and delivery requirement. The land owner has a petition for the specific amount of Project water for the specific parcel of land with the Florida Water Conservancy District (FWCD). The District is responsible to see that the water is delivered and paid for. The water is delivered and measured at the individual canal turnouts and when the petitioned water amount or water made available in that specific year is used the turnout is closed. . Adjudicated water rights are measured in cubic feet per second and available directly out of the Florida River when flows are large enough that the water right is priority to divert. Individual ditch companies hold most of the adjudicated water rights on the river. The ditch companies water is divided into shares which equate to fractions of cubic feet per second. These shares may be sold from individual to individual and are not tied to the land except for the limitation of the irrigation system to deliver the water. The share holder requests the water be turned on and off until the ditch company's priority is out. This is when Project water is typically * It 1/10/97 - PREUMINARY - SUB.JECT To REVISION - FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY * It