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<br />46 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Poudre Ditch, Big Thompson River, Little Thompson River, <br />St. Vrain Creek, Boulder Creek, and the South Platte <br />River all receive water from the Project. <br />It took 19 years to construct all the reservoirs, power <br />plants, and diversion facilities of the project. The <br />idea of diverting water from the Colorado River to the <br />eastern slope dates back to 1881 when the state engineer <br />made preliminary surveys. The Big Thompson Project <br />began construction in 1937 and completed the project in <br />1956. However, studies and background work began in the <br />early 1930's. <br />The project is designed to deliver 310,000 acre <br />feet of water to the eastern slope; of that, 149,723 <br />acre feet are allocated to the Cache La Poudre. Water from <br />the Big Thompson Project did not bring additional land <br />under irrigation, but made the water supply to the <br />existing ditches more reliable. <br />Irrigation is a complex subject. More <br />information may be found in Consolidation of Irrigation <br />Systems: Phase I Engineering, Legal,and Sociological <br />Constraints and/or Facilitators by Gaylord Skogerboe, <br />George E. Radosevich, and Evan C. Vlachos (23). <br />Several ditches divert water from the Poudre in the <br />study. Table I identifies these ditches, their priority, <br />amounts in cubic feet per second, dates, and taxed <br />irrigated acres. The location of the ditches can <br />be seen in Figure 7. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br />