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Show 734 INTERSTATE ADJUDICATIONS upper valley-main river and tributaries. The consumptive use on this 326,000 acres far exceeds that of the upper sections combined. We have mentioned the various canals which take out from the river in this section. The Special Master found their annual requirements to be 1,072,514 acre feet. The total net seasonal requirements of all the canals diverting in this section was found to be 1,027,000 acre feet. In the ten year period from 1931 to 1940 this net seasonal requirement of 1,027,000 acre feet largely exceeded the supply in three years and was less than the supply in seven years.9 In those seven years the seasonal flows passing the Tri-State Dam were far less than the ex- cesses, indicating as the Special Master concluded that canal diver- sions in the section were greater than the requirements. He pointed out that if the diversions during the period had been restricted to the determined requirements and if the excess had been held in storage in the upper reservoirs and released indiscriminately to all canals as needed, irrespective of storage rights, any surplus water would have been conserved and would not have passed Tri-State. He esti- mated that under that method of operation the total supply (exclud- ing any supply for Kendrick) would have been approximately suffi- cient for the section. But on the basis of the 1931-1940 supply the seasonal requirement of 1,027,000 acre feet cannot be met by natural flow alone and without storage water. The Special Master roughly estimated the deficiency of natural flow as follows for the period of 1931 to 1940: Year Deficiency of natural flow 1 1931____________________________________552,952 acre feet 1932____________________________________305,000 acre feet 1933____________________________________251,980 acre feet 1934____________________________________841,488 acre feet 1935____________________________________666,058 acre feet 1936____________________________________495,737 acre feet 1937____________________________________489,975 acre feet 1938____________________________________501,991 acre feet 1939____________________________________450,908 acre feet 1940____________________________________751,244 acre feet 1 "Natural flow," ais used by the Special Master and as usedi in this opinion, means all water in the stream except that which comes from storage water releases. On that basis the average seasonal supply of natural flow available in this section was only 48 per cent of the total requirement. In 1933, the year of the largest flow, it was only 75 per cent. In general the prac- tice has been to allow storage right canals having early priorities to receive natural flow water on a priority basis, using storage water merely as a supplementary supply. In this area 90 per cent of the lands have both natural flow and storage rights.10 Seventy-eight per cent of the lands having storage rights are in Nebraska, 22 per cent in Wyoming. Of the lands having natural flow rights only 49 per cent are in Nebraska and 51 per cent in Wyoming. 1 The excess or deficiency for each of those years is indicated by the following: _________________________ +113, 300 1932-------------------------------------+352, 500 1933_________________________ +465, 000 1934------------_________________ -515, 400 1935_________________________ -157, 000 1936------------------------------------- + 5,480 1937_________________________+225, 350 1938------------------------------------- +143, 150 1939---------___________________+ 66.050 1940------------------------------------- -382, 080 10 Of this 90 percent, 68 percent are project lands and 32 percent have Warren Act contracts. |
