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A Review of <br />“A Drought Relief Study in the South Platte River Valley Emphasizing <br /> Conjunctive Use” <br />Office of the State Engineer <br />State of Colorado <br />January, 1978 <br />Hal D. Simpson, P.E. <br />Introduction <br />The Drought Relief Study was conducted in re sponse to the serious 1977 drought, which <br />was the single driest year of record for ma ny river basins in Colorado until the 2002 year. <br />The BOR funded the study in the fall of 1977 in anticipation of the drought extending for <br />several years as had been the pattern of earlier droughts such as the drought of the <br />1950’s. <br />The objectives of the study were: <br />1. Identify developable sites for supplemen tal ground water withdrawals to provide <br />short-term relief at times when insufficien t surface water is available for diversion <br />by ditches and canals. <br />2. Identify depletions resulting from the supplemental ground water pumping <br />program in various reaches of the South Platte River from Chatfield dam to the <br />State Line and prevent any inju ry to senior water rights. <br />3. Determine a method of allo cating operating costs to the various beneficiaries <br />based upon the results of the study. <br />Procedure of the Study <br />The study had to be conducted in a matter of months so three c onsulting engineering <br />firms were employed and supervised by the State Engineers Office (SEO) to conduct the <br />field work for three reaches of the South Platte River. <br />1. Chatfield dam to Kersey gage – Hydro-Triad, Ltd. – District 1 <br />2. Kersey gage to Balzac gage – Toups Corporation – District 2 <br />3. Balzac gage to the State Line – URS Company – District 64 <br />URS also provided 1977 aerial photo base maps of the entire study area so that the <br />consulting firms could map ditch systems, wells under these systems, and acres irrigated <br />under the systems. <br />The consultants were also to evaluate the di tch systems for the ability to use ground water <br />as an alternative supply in a drought situation. <br />1 <br />