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<br />SM concept plan.doc <br />8/16/04 <br />Page 2 of 10 <br /> <br />Plan Summary <br /> <br />Introduction <br />The Bureau of Reclamation planned the San Miguel Project, which was one of Colorado's "five <br />participating projects", authorized as a component of the 1968 Colorado River Storage Project <br />Act.. The Project, which was based primarily on irrigation use, was never funded, primarily <br />because it could not meet Bureau of Reclamation cost I benefit ratio standards. <br />There have been lots of studies" Present days realities mandate that a large on-stream storage <br />facility on the San Miguel River is not economically; or environmentally feasible.. The original <br />authorized project was primarily an irrigatioQ project. New needs have been identified. <br />Local users are united in the belief that the federal government is committed to assist in <br />developing water storage in the San Miguel Basin to meet the various needs of the area, as <br />identified below. <br /> <br />Need <br />The original project was primarily for irrigation supplies on Wright's Mesa. The drought <br />of 2002 and 2003 has focused the need for more water storage in the San Miguel River Basin. <br />Because of the drought, several water storage needs have been identified, in addition to ones <br />originally defined by the Bureau of Reclamation in the original San Miguel Project Plan. <br /> <br />- ~ l <br /> <br />Specifically, needs in addition to supplemental inigation are: 1) need for more domestic <br />and commercial storage for the Norwood Water Commission; 2) need for storage for Plans of <br />Augmentation for development throughout the entire San Miguel River Basin; 3) need for a <br />backup industrial storage supply for Tri State Generation & Transmission Company's Coal Fired <br />Power Plant at Nuda; and 4) need for late season in-stream flow in the lower SanMiguel <br />Riverlt <br /> <br />The specific needs and the approx.ima~e amount of water required is as follows: (see detail <br />documentation) <br />1. Norwood Water Commission -------------...-------------------------------------- 2,000 AF <br />2. Upper San Miguel POAs..-------------------------------------..~--------___---- 300 AF <br />