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<br />Project Service Area and Facilities <br /> <br />The PRBDC provides irrigation water to a 2596-acre service area in LaPlata County. The <br />heading for the PRB Ditch is located east of the Town of Bayfield, above Beaver Creek, and <br />extends south and east approximately 11 miles. Irrigated acreage within the service area is <br />primarily used for cattle ranching and to grow hay. Hay crop is used as cattle feed, or is sold. <br />The service area includes irrigable tribal lands of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and sheep <br />farms, one running about 500 head. A location map of the PRB Ditch is found in Appendix A. <br /> <br />Hydrology and Water Rights <br /> <br />The sources of water for the Company are direct flow water rights out of the Pine River, together <br />with storage water assigned by the Pine River Irrigation District in the Vallecito Reservoir. The <br />water rights diverted at the PRBDC headgate consist of 3 rights totaling 36.36 c.f.s.: 15.36 c.f.s. <br />and 4.0 c.f.s. appropriated March 24,1913 and adjudicated June 12,1934, and 17.0 c.f.s. <br />appropriated May 31, 1954 and adjudicated December 31, 1990. Diversion records are difficult <br />to accurately itemize as records are kept only for the Schroder Ditch. PRBDC carries <br />approximately 58% of the Schroder annual diversions. The last three years on record present <br />an incomplete picture of average diversions, due to the drought. The average annual diversion <br />for the last five years on record is 15,287 acre feet through the Schroder. At 58%, the average <br />annual diversion for the last five years on record is 8,866 for the Pine River Bayfield ditch. State. <br />Engineer Diversion records for the Schroder Ditch, found in Appendix B, cover 51 years. <br /> <br />Project Description and Alternatives <br /> <br />The purpose of this project is to provide a means for the PRBDC to continue providing irrigation <br />water to shareholders by replacing the existing siphon. <br /> <br />The current siphon was installed in the early 1950. It consists of a 32-inch steel pipe with a <br />side-wall thickness of about three-eights of an inch. The life expectancy of the siphon was <br />projected to be approximately 30 years. It has remained functional, with ever difficult and <br />increasing annual repairs, for twenty years beyond this projection. The outlet works of the <br />siphon streambed is layered with rust scales from two to four inches in diameter and up to an <br />eighth of an inch in thick. <br /> <br />Replacement of the siphon will require excavation of a trench to a depth of approximately six <br />feet. The trench will then be bedded with 6 inches of three-quarter inch minus washed granular <br />material. Then twenty-foot joints ofa 30-inch diameter PVC pipe will be installed in the trench. <br />Before the pipe is covered with common material, the sides and top of the pipe will be covered <br />with three-quarter inch washed granular material to a thickness of approximately six inches. <br /> <br />Three options are being considered regarding the siphon alignment and associated trench <br />excavation. Option 1 includes removal of the old siphon and installing the new one in the same <br />alignment. Option 2 would be to excavate a trench adjacent to the old siphon, in virgin soil, a <br />distance of approximately six feet from the old alignment. Option 3 involves changing the angle <br />of the siphon at its mid point by approximately five to ten degrees to the south and establishing <br />a new discharge point approximately 100 to 200 feet downstream. <br /> <br />Advantages and disadvantages of each option are currently being evaluated and include the <br />following. <br /> <br />PRE Ditch Company <br />Siphon Replacement Feasibility Study <br />June 2003 <br /> <br />Page 7 of 15 <br />