99 



water has not received much consideration, but that it is to be an im- 

 portant factor is shown by the growth of the appropriations of water 

 for the city of Denver. Originally its water right was for 30 cubic 

 feet per second. Later there was added to this IH. cubic feet per sec- 

 ond. AVlieu no more water was to be acquired by appropriation, 

 additional rights were purchased, until to-day the corporation which 

 supplies the city holds rights to 420 cubic feet per second for direct 

 diversion and additional rights to an immense volume for storage in 

 nonirrigation periods. In the arid region cities are large consumers 

 of Avater. The needs for lawns and for streets nre greater than in 

 humid districts. The city of Cheyenne has an appropriation of 12 

 cubic feet per second, which is more than the average flow of the 

 stream and more than has ever been used, but as the city grows the 

 consumption of water will also grow until it ab;;orbs the stream or 

 equals the right. As all the water not taken by the city is used by 

 irrigators, every increase in the city's consumption cuts down the 

 supply of irrigators. Denver, Greeley, Fort Collins, and other 

 cities in Colorado; Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, and Douglas, in 

 Wyoming, and other cities and towns in Nebraska must in time make 

 a marked inroad on the supply and are a factor to be considered in 

 fixing the ultimate limits of irrigation. 



The preceding pages of this report show that the average volume 

 of w^ater supplied by the South Platte and its tributaries from April 

 to September is 2,765 cubic feet per second, and the decreed rights 

 to this supply aggregate 30,507 cubic feet per second, or more than 

 ten times the supply. The average flow of the North Platte at 

 Guernsey, Orin, or Douglas (see p. 24) from April to September is 

 4,013 cuiiic feet per second, and the decreed rights to water from the 

 North Platte and Platte below that point aggregate 11,173 cubic feet 

 per second, or nearly three times the supply. This situation is well 

 understood, but the need for water and its prospective value is so 

 great that appropriations are being made more aggressively than 

 ever before. In 1903—1: filings from the South Platte drainage in 

 Colorado were made on 11,842 cubic feet of water per second, and for 

 2,282 cubic feet per second from the North Platte drainage. In the 

 same time filings on the South Platte in Colorado to fill reservoirs 

 aggregated 39,802,108,745 cubic feet; on the North Platte drainage 

 indie'^same State, 200,120,042 cubic feet. The records of Wyoming 

 and Nebraska show corresponding activity. ;Many of these filings 

 will be abandoned, but many will be followed by construction, and 

 with each mile of new ditch built, each additional acre of land irri- 

 gated, the struggle over water ownership will become more intense 

 and the need for a definite understanding of the nature of titles to 

 Avater more imperative. 



The situation along the Platte is not peculiar to this river or to 



