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<br />maintenance work on Olympus Dam radial gates. Normal transfer of water to Horsetooth <br />Reservoir began November 27. Horsetooth Reservoir storage of 151,360 acre-feet (water <br />surface elevation 5427.34 feet) was reached on June 28. <br /> <br />Project water deliveries for irrigation began on April 19. A total of 1,736 acre-feet was delivered <br />in April and 3,006 acre-feet in May, with May deliveries 35 percent of average. June deliveries <br />totaled 4,423 acre-feet, which was 61 percent of average. <br /> <br />Water deliveries for July increased to 19,038 acre-feet, or 68 percent of the 30-year average. <br />Water deliveries for August and September were 47 and 73 percent of the 30-year average. <br />Total water deliveries for the water year 1999 were 65,700 acre-feet, which were 30,440 acre-feet <br />below 30-year average. <br /> <br />Horsetooth Reservoir finished the water year with 123,924 acre-feet of water in storage, which <br />was 157 percent of the 30-year average and the second highest end of water year storage content <br />in 49 years of record. Because of the unusually wet spring and summer along the eastern part of <br />the Continental Divide, the Big Thompson River flows remained very high. That allowed native <br />Eastern Slope flows to be diverted as priority water. The Eastern Slope priority water was <br />diverted through the Olympus Tunnel, used through the power system, released from Flatiron <br />Reservoir to the Hansen Feeder Canal, and never returned to the Big Thompson River. The <br />surplus water was stored at Horsetooth Reservoir. There were 51,674 acre-feet of priority water <br />stored for water year 1999, a record volume. The actual operations for the Colorado-Big <br />Thompson Project for water year 1999 are summarized in Table 3. <br /> <br />Flood Benefits <br /> <br />Precipitation on the upper Colorado River basin was significantly below average during <br />February, March, and part of April. Snow-pack began to drop below average in March. IN <br />response, the Colorado-Big Thompson Projects (CBT) reservoirs were brought up to average or <br />above average storage by the latter part of April. In late April and May, greater than average <br />snow and rain occurred, resulting in higher than anticipated inflows to project reservoirs. Project <br />operations reduced the flows along the upper Colorado River basin without increasing stream <br />flows in the South Platte River. <br /> <br />Estimated flood damages prevented in the Colorado River Basin during 1999 by the operation of <br />Lake Granby and Green Mountain Reservoir were $0 and $14,000, respectively. <br /> <br />Since construction, the Colorado-Big Thompson Project has prevented flood damages totaling <br />$316,000. <br /> <br />16 <br />