The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-03-31
COLORADO IRRIGATION
SEASON ENDS IN OCTOBER


Fort Collins, Colo, March Is
In an opinion handed down in the
district court by Judge Harry f.
Gamble, the petition of the Larimer
& Weld Reservoir company for an
dnjunction restraining the state and
division engineers from enforcing
the order entered last October,
Whereby the gates Of reservoirs in
this district were closed in order that
Plat valley water users might have
water for so-called direct irrigation,
was granted.
The court ruled that the time af-
ter the first of October could not
legitimately be known as the irriga-
ton season, even in the case of the
Platte valley, where water is used
at that time Of the year to soak the
ground through the winter, as an
aid to the crop growth during the
next year.
The effect Of the ruling is to de-
fine the storage and irrigation sea-
sons of the Cache la Poudre and
Platte valleys, the opinion holding
that after October first the use of
water in the Platte cannot be known
as direct irrigation. as it Is intend
ed solely for the benefit of crops
which cannot mature until the fol-
lowing year. In this connection the
opinion reads:
1t is the opinion of the court that
ordinarily the irrigation season
should be designated as that season
during which water is ordinarily
needed and can be beneficially ap-
piled to the raising of a crop for
the then current year, or is needed
Tor the preservation of a perennial
crop, or a crop to be planted in the
fall and matured the following year.
1T is the opinion of the court that
the application of water from the
bitches in the fall and winter months
to land not to be seeded, and upon
which no crop exists or will exist un-
til the following year and upon which
the water is applied for the purpose
of saturating the ground and at
tempting to conserve the moisture
for the following year, cannot be
termed direct or immediate use fol
irrigation.
THE purpose of such irrigation OF
such application of water to the sol
b nothing more than an attempt tc
conserve or store the water in the
soil, and, in the opinion Of the court
must be governed by the same rules
that would govern the storage of wa.
ter in reservoirs.
In another portion of the opinion
the court referred to the fact that il
has become the established custom
for storage to begin after the close
of the direct irrigation season anG
that to permit the Platte valley wa
ter users to overturn this custom
AlIST 30 lOuS d pCIlUu VI dCQulCSCcuCe
would be practical confiscation of the
enormously valuable reservoirs of the
district.
Attorneys Stephenson and Allen
representing the state officials anG
the Platte valley ditch companies
were granted time in which to per.
feet an appeal to the supreme court
The feeling among reservoir own
ers here is that the decision means
millions of dollars to the reservoir
systems of northern Colorado, as the
enforcement of the order issued by
the state engineer meant that the
reservoirs of this section could not
open their headgates during the win.
ter months, but must allow the wa.
ter to flow down to the Platte fol
use on the lands irrigated from di
rect bitches in that locality