2009-10-29_REVISION - M1987049 (4)

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i 'The abandonment of this exclusive use of the drainage ditch as it is employed for such irrigation would not in- crease the supply of any earlier constructed ditch of this water district. The effect of such use is not to diminish the natural supply or floe, of the river. The consumptive use ill irrigation of :)y. application of the water carried to it from these swamps in the irrigation season is not greater than would be the lose of said water by evap- oration if alloxed to accumulate on the lands now drained. The soil of the lands drained was such as to prevent easy outlet of water accumulated either underground or on the surface. Before its construction, the water this ditch now gathers was accumulating on the surface in shallow depth to an area of 200 acres. On this body of shallow rater so ex- posed to the air, the eya??raQ n-wa_q._mor___ e_th_n 1000 acre feet annually, and was one'acre foot • per acre monthly in June, July and August alone. This evaporation i4as a com- plate loss to appropriators of this water district. Use of the ditch has confined the exposed area dnd many times reduced the evaporation, and has increased rather than' re- duced the amount of said water which would reach the river. Before the construction of this ditch, none of said water was reaching the river by any visible or defined course. The carrying portion of the ditch is short; it runs through a very porous soil and returns-to the river by seepage, all but about four cubic feet of the ordinary ten feet there is gathered by the upper portion of the ditch.' This return eater so escapin.a* reaches the river above the headgate of the next ditch of older date below the lands drained. The lands irrigated also are porous and return underground a large percentage of water to the river. Only to the extent t?