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<br />- <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />- 7 - <br /> <br />N <br />N priority dates between 1890 and 1910. More than 200 storage reservoirs have been <br />CD <br />-.J <br />constructed and used for irrigation, municiapl and industrial purposes. Those <br /> <br />for use by main stem ditches have an aggregate capacity of 380,000 acre feet, <br /> <br /> <br />and those for uses on the tributaries have a total capacity of about 260,000 acre <br /> <br />feet. In addition, numerous small stock water ponds have been built in the basin. <br /> <br />The John Martin Reservoir, constructed VQth Federal fUnds as a flood control pro- <br /> <br />ject, also has about 400,000 acre feet of its capacity dedicated to conservation <br /> <br />purposes, and water stored in this pool is released for use by ditches below it <br /> <br />in Colorado and Kansas. With the exception of this facility, to date the devel- <br /> <br />opment of irrigation in the basin has been accomplished with private capital. <br /> <br />There is still a great need in every section of the basin for supple- <br /> <br />mental water for late season use on presently irrigated lands, without regard to <br /> <br />the fact that there are suitable new lands which could be irrigeted if water <br /> <br />supplies were not already over-appropriated. In comp~ratively recent years <br /> <br />sup~lemental water has been applied.to lands irrigated under direct flow rights <br /> <br />by means of pumping from the alluvium near the river which has been filled by <br /> <br />return flows from surface irrigation. This activity has been carried on prin- <br /> <br />cipally in the "rea between Pueblo and Jor.n i~artin Dam, and the total amount of <br /> <br />area thus supplemented is probably not more thnn 15,000 acres, or about 7.5 per- <br /> <br />cent of the total irrigated from the main river in that reach. The portion of <br /> <br />this pumped water actually consumed and thus withheld from the river during the <br /> <br /> <br />periods of supplemental pumping is not a major factor as compared with total <br /> <br /> <br />stream depletion; and the res,ult of the operation is probably some reduction dur- <br /> <br /> <br />ing the lote season in the amount of direct flow water available to junior ap- <br /> <br />~ropriators from the river. <br /> <br />Through the years, some of the water users have also turned to the coun- <br /> <br />try west o.r the Continental Divide to obtain supplies of imported water to sup- <br />