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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form <br />Form Revised May 2007 <br />Project helps to support the State's economic vitality and competitiveness by meeting its <br />irrigation obligations and by helping to maintain a healthy river system from high in the <br />San .Tian Mountains to the State line and beyond. The State's economic vitality is further <br />enhanced by completing these studies so that the final project, irhen complete, results in <br />enhancing the diverse mix of consumptive and nonconsumptive needs and uses described <br />above, including wildlife, fisheries, tourism, recreation, riparian diversity, and <br />conservation. . <br />4. Please provide an overview of the water project or activity to be funded including - tNpe of activity, statement of <br />what the activity is intended to accomplish, the need for the activity, the problems and opportunities to be <br />addressed, expectations of the participants, why- the activity- is important, the seivice area or geographic location, <br />and any relevant issues etc. Please include any relevant TABOR issues that may affect the Contracting Entity. <br />Please refer to Part 2 of Criteria and Guidance document for additional detail on information to include. <br />The Colorado State Engineer has placed a restriction of 15,000 acre-feet on Continental's storage <br />capacity due to safety considerations (Attachment E). The spillway is significantly deteriorated and <br />there is a serious and long-standing seepage problem on the darn. Continuing deterioration and loss of <br />structural integrity of the darn are causing serious concerns, particularly in flood control and irrigation <br />(Attachment D). The Reservoir was constructed in 1910 and is operated ni conjunction with the Santa <br />Maria. Santa Maria receives regulated discharges from Continental Reservoir through North Clear <br />Creek, then through a centw y-old conveyance system of a pipeline, a siphon and an open ditch. The <br />two reservoirs are about 8.5 miles apart, as the crow flies. Santa Maria stores irrigation water and also <br />stores Rio Grande Compact water, San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District water, CDOW water, <br />and Trans-Mountain water. Santa Maria also provides flood control. Throughout the year, whenever <br />water is available to store in Santa Maria, the deteriorated conveyance system limits the arnount of <br />water which reaches Santa Maria from Continental. Although Santa Maria has a designed capacity of <br />43.000 acre feet, maxunum storage in recent years has been only 15,000 acre-feet. <br />The Project to be funded by this proposal is to conduct engineering, hydrological and hydraulic studies <br />of all structures in the System. These studies will identify the best approach to restore capacity to both <br />reservoirs, improving and/or replacing the deteriorated conveyance structures so as to achieve the <br />optimal efficiencies in the transfer of water from Continental to Santa Maria. The result of these studies <br />will be to remove the State-imposed restrictions on storage and to restore full operating efficiencies to <br />the System. This will allow Continental to hold and control additional Rio Grande Compact water, <br />improve SMR's ability to hold and more effectively manage irrigation water; increase the System's <br />value in flood control and its ability to respond in tunes of drought; increase SMR's options and ability <br />to serve third parties; and greatly unprove and enlarge fisheries, riparian areas, and wildlife habitat. <br />Type of Activitv: <br />This project requests finding to perform studies and analyses of structural and nonstructural elements, and addresses both <br />consumptive and nonconsumptive seater needs. SMR is identifying problems with the delivery system of the Santa Maria <br />and the Continental, which take a water right from Spring Creek through a complex of pipelines, ditches, lakes, and two <br />reservoirs, delivering the water via North Clear Creek to the Rio Grande, from where irrigation water is directed, in <br />priority, to irrigated lands. A schematic drawing of the delivery system describes, in sunplified form, hose water currently <br />moves, and suggests how at times it does not move, through the system. <br />16