OCR Text |
Show 678 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS water from Wyoming enters the river between the state boundary and Woods, and for this he deducted 13,000 acre-feet, leaving 217,000. Then, making a reservation as to Sand Creek, to be considered presently, he concluded that 217,000 acre-feet was the average yearly flow in that section of the river. He called it the "normal" flow, an evident misnomer. This did not include water diverted in Colorado, under recognized Colorado appropriations, which does not reach Wyoming. Even if the computation was to be made along the lines of some- thing approaching a general average, we think the witness's computa- tion and conclusion are subject to objection in particulars which we proceed to state. The table shows that the flow for 1899 was extraordinary, so much so that it should have been excluded in computing the average and left to take the general level of the others. Its flow was 216,221 acre- feet in excess of their average. The excess added nothing to the avail- able supply-that which in practice could be used. The flow for the next year was such that it required no augmentation from 1899. So, the inclusion of 1899 in the computation was, in effect, taking what was not available as a measure of what was. The error raised the average of the other years 24,036 acre-feet, and was carried into the ultimate conclusion. We do not doubt that it was admissible to compare the data relating to the Laramie with that relating to the Cache la Poudre and to give effect to such conclusions as reasonably were to be drawn from the comparison; but we think there was no justification for the addition which was made to bring the nine years up to the standard of an average year among the thirty covered by the Cache la Poudre table. The addition tended to distort rather than to reflect the available supply. Looking at the Cache la Poudre table, it is evident that the nine years, in combination, would not have appeared short in flow had the four extraordinary years in the thirty been excluded, as they should have been. Besides, a comparison of the two tables shows that the variation in yearly flow in the two streams is not the same and that the difference is such as to preclude a nice calculation such as was here made on the basis of an assumed uniformity. To illustrate: According to one table the flow of the Poudre from April to October, both inclusive, in 1900 was 85,982 acre-feet in excess of that for the same months in 1899, while according to the other the flow of the Laramie for those months in 1899 was 142,625 acre-feet in excess of that for the corresponding period in 1900; and according to one table the flow of the Poudre for those months in 1913 was 73.2 per cent, of that for the same part of 1912, while according to the other the flow of the Laramie for those months in 1913 was 46.5 per cent, of that for the same part of 1912. Assuming that 13,000 acre-feet enter the river from Wyoming between the state boundary and Woods, and are part of the river at the latter point, we think this water should not have been deducted. It is part of the supply available to satisfy appropriations from the stream in Wyoming. The witness treated the flow from April to October, both inclusive, in 1912 as being 213,407 acre-feet, and the flow in the same months in 1913 as being 99,221 acre-feet. In this we think he erred. The |