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Ute Irrigation Tabulation (2009)
Updated: 4/26/2016
View Date: 11/21/2024
View PDF table of the Ute Irrigation lands as they were prepared for the 2009 tabulation.
The lands are presented by group and water source based upon acreage originally laid out in Decker and tabulated in the 1980 and then 1990 proposed compact tables.
In the 1980 and 1990 tables the Group 1 and 2 acreages were broken down by water right certificate from applications under the Uintah Irrigation Project.
That resulted in some canals appearing in a group more than once since more than one certificate was issued.
For this tabulation we combined canals so there is only one listing in a group for each canal.
In 2009 Lynn Hansen provided tables of acreage changes the BIA had records of.
The net effect of those changes was no change in actual acreage served but 80 acres moves from being served from the Uintah River to the Whiterocks River.
Those acreage exchanges for group 1 and 2 lands are shown in red in the tabulation.
For Group 4 lands the table identifies those lands Decker claimed that we believe to be in fee ownership in red.
The issue is significant since these lands were not served from the Indian Irrigation Project but were served from privately constructed ditches.
Under past case law they are most similarly situated as "Walton" type water right claimants.
Within Group 5 lands we have identified in red type those lands that had the appearance of being presently irrigated at the time we surveyed them in about 2006.
That issue is significant since under the 1990 compact negotiations the Tribe was awarded water from the Green River in lieu of developing the Group 5 lands.
Our survey identified about 2000 acres.
To the extent lands identified as being presently irrigated are in fee ownership there could be a claim for a water right deriving from Tribal water
which if validated would make water for those lands unexchangeable with the Green River and would therefore diminish Green River water awarded the Tribe.
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