OCR Text |
Show LARAMIE RIVER LITIGATION 679 evidence establishes that the flow in the first period was not more than 191,820 acre-feet and in the second was not more than 94,369. Even with the year 1899 excluded, this error increased the average 3,305 acre-feet. If we exclude the extraordinary flow of 1899, make the needed cor- rection in the flow of 1912 and 1913, and assume the accuracy of the other data, the average becomes 171,204 acre-feet, instead of 198,545, as given by the witness. This requires that the 21,945 acre-feet which were added to cover the flow for the five other months be reduced to 19,023. When these corrections are made in the witness's data and com- putation, the result is changed from 217,000 acre-feet to 190,227. But we are of opinion that the computation and conclusion of the witness, even when revised in the way we have indicated, are based too much on the average flow and not enough on the unalterable need for a supply which is fairly constant and dependable, or is suscepti- ble of being made so by storage and conservation within practicable limits. By this it is not meant that known conditions must be such as to give assurance that there will be no deficiency even during long periods, but rather that a supply which is likely to be intermittent, or to be materially deficient at relatively short intervals, does not meet the test of practical availability. As we understand it, sub- stantial stability in the supply is essential to successful reclamation and irrigation. The evidence shows that this is so, and it is fully recognized in the literature on the subject. The same witness prepared and submitted another table embodying all the data he was able to secure from records of past gaging and measurements at Woods. This included three years not shown in the nine-year table. They and their recorded flow from April to October, both inclusive, were: 1889, 132,349 acre-feet; 1890, 168,406 acre-feet, and 1891, 207,146 acre-feet. The witness pronounced the data for these years less accurate than that for the others, and, while his reason for doing so does not clearly appear, we shall assume he was right. Had the three years been included in the nine-year table that would have reduced the average from 198,545 to 189,371 acre-feet, counting iall years, and from 174,509 to 171,066 acre-feet, counting all but 1899. It, however, would not have shown another year with a flow as low as that of 1913, nor as low as that of 1896. Colorado presented other evidence in the way of general estimates, results of very fragmentary gaging, and opinions based on rough measurements of snow-drifts in the mountainous area about the head of the stream; but we put all of this aside as being of doubtful pro- bative, value at best and far less persuasive than the evidence we have been discussing. Wyoming's evidence was based on the same recorded data that were used by Colorado, and also on actual gaging and measurements by an experienced hydrographer covering the period beginning April 1, 1912, and ending April 30, 1914. Shortly stated, her evidence was to the effect that the actual measured flow at the Pioneer Dam, four miles below Woods, wias 198,867 acre-feet from April to December, both inclusive, in 1912, was 109,593 acre-feet for all of 1913 and was 19,181 acre-feet for the first four months of 1914; that the flow for 1912 was somewhat above the average, counting all years; that the flow |