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STATE OF COLORADO <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Sherman Street, Room 721 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: (303) 866-3441 <br />FAX: (303) 866-4474 <br />(Revised) <br />Memorandum <br />TO: Colorado Water Conservation Board Membe <br />FROM: Tim Feehan, P.E., Projec Man ger <br />Mike Serlet, P.E., Chief ~~ <br />Water Supply Planning an Finance S ion <br />DATE: May 4, 2007 <br />SUBJECT: Consent Agenda, Item 1 a, May 22-23, Board Meeting <br />Water Supply and Finance -Revisions to Existing Loans <br />Bijou Irrigation District -Empire Reservoir Rehabilitation <br />Bill Ritter Jr. <br />Governor <br />Harris D. Sherman <br />Executive Director <br />Rod Kuharich <br />CWCB Director <br />Dan McAullife <br />Deputy Director <br />INTRODUCTION <br />At the May, 2005 Board Meeting, the Board authorized staff to present revisions to existing <br />loans totaling less then 20% of the original loan as Consent Agenda Items. The Bijou Irrigation <br />District loan increase presented below is less than 20%. <br />The Bijou Irrigation District (District) is requesting an increase of $50,783 to their May 2005 <br />authorization of $672,660 for Empire Reservoir Rehabilitation Project. The requested loan <br />increase is based on actual qualified legal, engineering, and construction costs to complete the <br />project. <br />BACKGROUND <br />The District owns and operates Empire Reservoir located west of Fort Morgan in Weld and <br />Morgan Counties, between I-76 on the south and US Highway 34 on the north. The District <br />provides imgation water to a 19,177-acre service area in Morgan County, located between the <br />reservoir and the City of Fort Morgan. Water stored in the reservoir is delivered to users <br />through a sister company, Bijou Irrigation Company, which operates and maintains the <br />distribution system, used for either direct irrigation or exchanges. Empire Reservoir is used to <br />supplement the direct flows, typically in July and August. Annual delivery from the reservoir is <br />about 19,900 acre-feet. <br />The lake has a surface area of 2,842 acres. The District has a right to store 37,709 AF, but the <br />maximum storage is 36,142 acre-feet at gage height (GH) 30.0. The reservoir was restricted <br />(since March 1985) to GH 29.0 water surface elevation by the State Engineer's Office (SEO), <br />due to safety concerns resulting from the absence of a spillway. This one foot reduction in gauge <br />