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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form <br />Form Revised May 2007 <br />Goals and Objectives: <br />SMR is requestirng $191,700 ni order to perform the engineering, hydrological and hydraulic studies to rehabilitate <br />Continental and Santa Maria, increasing the capacity in Continental by 11,000 acre-feet and restoring it to its original <br />designed capacity of 26,000 acre-feet. Specific goals and outcomes of this enlargement study are as follows: <br />• Analvze and evaluate the design of the Continental - Santa Maria reservoir sv_ stem <br />• Examine cause of seepage and resolve seepage problems <br />• Return Continental to full storage capability <br />• Eliminate or reduce seasonal limitations on water transport system <br />• Determine stability- of darn embankment <br />• Resolve questions on permeability parameters of downstream reservoir darn embanlnnent <br />• Improve reservoir system capacity for agricultural irrigation <br />• Improve reservoir system capability for flood control <br />• Implement water conservation measures to augment low flow regimes <br />• Maximize potential for fishery- and recreation resources <br />• Restore riparian health <br />Need: <br />The Colorado State Engineer has placed a restriction of 15,000 acre-feet on Continental's storage capacity due to safety <br />considerations. The spillway is significantly deteriorated and at higher reservoir levels excessive seepage through the left <br />abutment/groin is problematic, causing concern as to present and fixture deterioration of the reservoir. The condition and <br />capacity of the spillway need to be determined and an engimering analysis needs to be performed, based on Colorado <br />State Engineer's requirements (passage of PMF, etc.) to repair and restore the spillway and lift the storage restriction. <br />Continuing deterioration and loss of structural integrity of the dam are causing serious concerns, particularly in flood <br />control and irrigation. Although Santa Maria has a designed capacity of 43,000 acre feet, maxnnurn storage in recent <br />years has been only 15,000 acre-feet. CDOW has requested assistance from SMR in order to achieve its water use goals <br />and objectives for fisheries and wildlife. Existing caps on storage at the trio reservoirs, however, place limits on the ability <br />of SMR to fijlly collaborate with CDOW in meeting their mutual goals for irrigation, flood control, riparian health, <br />fisheries, and wildlife habitat. <br />Problems and Opportunities: <br />Santa Maria and Continental are not using their available capacity. The problems at both reservoirs and iii the <br />conveyance system are evident in photographs in Attachment C. At Continental the spillway is significantly deteriorated <br />and there is a serious and long-standing seepage problem on the dam. Continuing deterioration and loss of structural <br />integrity- of the darn are causing serious concerns, particularly in flood control and irrigation. These safety considerations <br />have led the Colorado State Engineer to restrict Continental's storage capacity, as described above. The Santa Maria was <br />constructed in 1910 and is operated in conjunction with the Continental. Santa Maria gets water from Continental through <br />a century-old convevance system of a pipeline, a siphon and an open ditch. Throughout the year, whenever water is <br />available to store in Santa Maria, the deteriorated convevance system limits the amount of water which reaches the Santa <br />Maria from Continental. A surntrizu v of the problems follows: <br />(1) The Colorado State Engineer has placed a restriction of 64.5 ft. gage height (15,000 AF) due to the <br />deteriorated spillway and its inability to pass the currently calculated PMF, and seepage at Continental. <br />The total capacity is 26,000 AF, or a loss of 11,000 AF of capacity, and <br />17