Opinion ID: 1322365
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Federal Involvement in the Valley

Text: The human inhabitants of the Valley have, for centuries, used the Rio Grande for irrigation. In 1925, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (the MRGCD) was formed to consolidate water rights and irrigation systems, and to rehabilitate the existing irrigation systems in the Valley. The MRGCD's subsequent financial difficulties coupled with aggradation of the river channel led to development of the Middle Rio Grande Project (the Project), one of two major federal water projects impacting the Valley. Approved by the Flood Control Acts of 1948 and 1950, the Project consists of federally rehabilitated and/or constructed water-storage facilities, diversion dams, canals, drains, and levees. The other major water project in the Valley, the San Juan-Chama Project (the San Juan-Chama), imports water from the Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande Basin. See Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Keys (Minnow II), 333 F.3d 1109, 1122-23 (10th Cir.2003), vacated as moot, 355 F.3d 1215 (10th Cir.2004).