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Project Description and Alternatives <br />The Grand River Ditch at Windy Point Piae Project. The site is located in Rocky Mountain National Park, <br />Larimer County, in the center of Sec. 30, T6N, R75W of the 6th P.M., about 2.4 miles by vehicle on the ditch <br />road southwest from the Continental Divide at La Poudre Pass. Vehicle access is via Long Draw Road south <br />from its intersection with Highway 14 (about 4.75 miles northeast of the summit of Cameron Pass). The <br />length of Long Draw Road from Highway 14 to the Continental Divide at La Poudre Pass is 15 miles. (The <br />project site is at 40 deg.27'35.19" N, 105 deg. 51.01' S9"W) The project location is on the ditch road at a <br />sharp bend in the ditch commonly known as "Windy Point". There is a locked gate at la Poudre Pass (the <br />RMNP boundary), contact WSSC for access. <br />The applicant has an 1891 Act easement for the Grand River Ditch. The ditch has been operated <br />continuously (summer months only) since 1890 when construction first began. The ditch is located at <br />10,200 feet elevation on the east facing slopes of the Never Summer Range in the Kawuneeche Valley, <br />north of Lulu City and the Colorado River Trailhead. The ditch is a collection facility for water which is <br />diverted over the Continental Divide into La Poudre Pass Creek through Long Draw Reservoir and then <br />into Big South fork of the Cache la Poudre River. <br />The Company draws water supplied by the Grand River Ditch and from other river and diversion rights in <br />the Cache la Poudre River and the Laramie River through a head gate near Ted's Place on Colorado <br />Highway 287 north of Laporte, Colorado into its main canal, the Larimer County Canal. <br />The water diverted by the Grand River Ditch is an important source of water for the irrigation of about <br />40,000 acres of farmland owned by the Company's shareholders. The Grand River Ditch provides about <br />18,000 acre-feet of the average 55,500 acre-feet of water distributed annually by the Company. The <br />Company presently uses all the water it diverts for agricultural purposes. <br />The Larimer County Canal runs generally in a southeasterly direction from the head gate near Ted's <br />Place to Highway 85 in Weld County near Ault, CO. Major laterals owned by WSSC shareholders <br />distribute the water several miles east of Highway 85 and as far north as Pierce, CO. See the map of the <br />Company's facilities attached. <br />On May 29, 2003 the Grand River Ditch breached. The Company shut down the ditch and employed a <br />contractor to install temporary pipes through the breach location to restore flows as expeditiously as <br />possible. The vast majority of the ditch is of open ditch (not piped) construction, but the steepness of <br />the terrain in the breach location and the damage caused by the breach itself necessitated the <br />installation of two parallel 5' diameter pipes, each about 300 feet long, in the section of the ditch which <br />breached. <br />The pipes installed were the only ones available on short notice but lack capacity to convey the <br />Company's fully adjudicated ditch water rights in that location. It has been the Company's intention <br />WSSC - GRD at Windy Pt & Kluver/Travis Rd Projects 8 <br />December 2008 <br />