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Show 762 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS Precision is concededly impossible. But approximations are possible; and they are sufficient for the administration of the river under the decree. It is true, as Wyoming says, that in order to segregate stor- age water and natural flow, losses by evaporation must be determined and, since those losses vary from section to section, the number of days required for the water to travel from one point to another must be known. The time required for water to travel from Alcova to Ne- braska varies under different conditions. As an expert of the Bureau of Eeclamation testified, since that time interval varies with the amount of water flowing in the river, it is difficult to make a formula which reflects it. Indeed U.S. Exhibit 204A does not include the time lag element and therefore does not supply all the data necessary in the segregation of natural flow and storage water at Whalen. But this expert testified that although it had not been possible to reflect the time interval in a formula, an adjustment for it was made: "Q.-In making this time interval correction, you use your best judgment, based upon your experience on the river and your ob- servation o.f what conditions were in the river, and, using that judgment, you arrive at the figure for this time interval correc- tion, do you not ? "A.-Yes, it is a more or less arbitrary correction . . ." But while the adjustment is an arbitrary one, corrections can be made and are made so that over a short period of days the segregation is balanced.23 And the evidence is that though this adjustment is only approximate and lacks precision, it is sufficiently accurate for admin- istrative purposes. For this expert of the Bureau of Reclamation testified: "Q.-But, giving consideration to all of these factors, there isn't any way of making any accurate determination, day to day, of the actual balance of natural flow and storage at either Guern- sey or the Nebraska-Wyoming line, is there ? "A.-That term 'accurate' depends upon what is accurate. "Q.-I mean this, Mr. Gleason-if there is 5,000 second feet of water arriving at Guernsey, is there any way that you can cor- rectly and accurately determine that 2,500, for instance, is storage and that 2,500 is natural flow ? "A.-Oh, I believe that we arrive at a figure that is correct enough for administrative purposes. It must be realized that an error of ten second feet in five hundred is inevitable. All hydro- 23 This expert for the Bureau of Reclamation, C. F. Gleason, testified: "Q.-If there is an error in a series of four or five days as to the amount of natural flow in relation to the storage, that might mean that a natural flow canal might get more or might get less than its due allotment of water, isn't that right? "A.-That might be true over a very short period. However, the corrections made which are shown in the work sheets as plus or minus storage in that section of the river are made to balance out in such a way that over the season there is no robbery of natural flow or storage and no particular accrual to it as a result of this method of calculation. "Q.-That is, an attempt is made to balance out, according to your judgment of what ought to be the amount of natural flow and storage at the State line, is that right? "A.-It is not balanced out according to judgment. It is balanced out mathematically. ' Q.-But it is balanced out mathematically upon what factors? "A.-Upon the factors of plus and minus channel storage, if you want to use that term. If we plus storage into the channel some days, we minus the total of the same amount later on to make it balance out. "Q.-That is to say, and you just testified in that way, that your balancing out of these plus and minus quantities that you put in is based upon your judgment of how much natural flow and storage water is at the State line, in view of the conditions and the quan- tities of natural flow and storage at Alcova ? "A.-Yes, that is correct. "Q.-Accordingly, the plus or minus corrections are based upon this matter of judgment. "A.-Yes." |