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San Luis Valley Fmgation District <br />~Q06-207 Nan-Reimbursable Project Application <br />\~ Page 5 of i i <br />particularly during high run-off periods, cause uncertainty regarding the available <br />water supply, and can affect certain groups of water users disproportionately. The <br />increased ability to store Compact water may assist Compact administration by <br />providing a cushion against fluctuations in curtailments that might be caused during <br />the course of an irrigation season due to the difficulty in accurately predicting the <br />volumes of runoff; return flows, and the necessary curtailments. <br />The ability to store increa~d amourrts of Compact water in an enlarged Reservoir also <br />may allow Colorado to deliver that water when River flows are lower, thereby <br />avoiding the high conveyance losses that occur between Alamosa and the state line <br />during periods of high flow. It also may allow Colorado to store Compact water <br />during high flow periods and release later in the year only that amount of water <br />needed to meet Compact obligations once the annual flow grojecrions are more <br />certain and irrigation return flows are fully calculated. This will help assure that <br />Colorado retains all the water to which it is entitled under the Compact in a given <br />year. <br />Increased storage may provide Colorado with the ability to. store Compact credit <br />water in the Reservoir rather than it being assumed that the credit is contained in <br />Project storage. Credit water stored in the Reservoir can be utilized in a subsequent <br />year to reduce the curtailment, thereby making available additional water to <br />Colorado's water users. The evaporation rate attributed to credit water in Reservoir <br />storage would be substantially less than the evaporation charges currently assessed <br />against Project storage. Aral, raedit water stored in an enlarged Reservoir will not be <br />lost if there is a spill at Elephant Butte Reservoir which, under the Compact, wipes <br />out all credit water in Project storage. <br />The study also will evaluate whether an enlargement will provide more opportunities <br />for exchange between the three principal pre-compact reservoirs on the system <br />pursuant to an exchange decree issued in Case No. 90 CW 42, District Court, Water <br />Division No. 3, and the possibility of increasing the amount of pre-compact water <br />stored in those reservoirs. <br />The Study proposed will evacuate each of these potential advantages ate enlarged <br />Reservoir may provide to better utilize and manage the water deliveries required and <br />the water available to Colorado under the Rio Grande Compact. <br />b. Storage of transmountain water to meet increasing domestic and commercial water <br />demand throughout the Rio Grande Basir3 thereby minimizing the need to dry-up <br />additional agricultural lands. The study will evaluate the ability-and utilization of <br />storing more transmountain water to meet the rapidly increasing.rieed for augmenta- <br />4 <br />