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San Luis Valley Irrigation District <br />200-2007 Non-Reimbursable Project Application <br />Page 3 of I 1 <br />The District has, at various times over the past 20 years, considered the possible enlargement <br />of Rio Grande Reservoir primarily to increase storage of water for irrigation. Most recently <br />the District commissioned a Preliminary Draft Study undertaken by Helton & Williamson, <br />P.C., the District's Consulting Engineers, on the water available to a potential enlargement <br />of the Reservoir. (The Draft is dated October 15, 2003, and a copy is attached to this <br />appIication). The Study concludes that there is little additional water available on a firm yield <br />basis for irrigation_ However, the Study indicted that an enlargement of the Reservoir could <br />be beneficial for several other purposes, including the storage of Compact water and water <br />under "direct flow storage" decrees. <br />The findings and recommendations recently published in the Statewide Water Supply <br />Initiative (SWSI) (as well as the report issued by Trout Unlimited and Western Resource <br />Advocates) are remarkably consistent with the District's own findings. The SWSI Report <br />finds that there is tittle or no remaining firm yield water far irrigation in the Rio Grande River <br />Basin. SWSI recognizes, however, that the enlargement of existing reservoirs and the re- <br />apcration and re-regulation of existing water supplies maybe effective in assuring the optimal <br />use of presently developed water supplies. It also may assist in addressing the increased <br />competition for water between agricultural, municipal, recreational and environmental uses <br />which, the SWSI Report recognizes, will intensify as Colorado's population 'increases. <br />Finally, SWSI recognizes that re-regulation of deliveries of water. under Colorado's compacts <br />may enable greater utilization of the foil amount of water the State is entitled to arse. Each <br />of these issues confronts water administrators and users in the Rio Grande Basin, and an <br />enlargement of the Rio Grande Reservoir may provide a means of addressing them. <br />The Proposed Study Geperally: <br />A.s noted above, Rio Grande Reservoir is strategically located at the headwaters of the <br />mairYStem of the Rio Grande River enabling it to deliver water through re-operation and re- <br />regulation, downstream throughout the length of the Rio Grande as it runs in the upper <br />reaches of the River above South Fork, past the Del lvorte gauge for delivery to thousands <br />of acres of irrigated land in the San Luis Valley, to the municipalities of Del Norte, Monte <br />Vsta and Atamosa, and to the River reaches below those towns to the border with New <br />Mexico. In light of its preferred location and the potential opportunities, an enlarged Rio <br />Grande Reservoir may provide in addressing better utilization of Colorado's water, supply. <br />'Fhe District believes that a study of tine potential State and Basin-wide benet~tts of an <br />enlargement of Rio Grande Reservoir is not only justified, but essential to addressing water <br />supply issues throughout"the Rio Grande River Basin. It is an opportunity to tape the next <br />step - to study the potential for implementing in the Rio Grande River Basin, the specific <br />findings and recommendations presented in the SWSI Report. Moreover, the Study will <br />provide an evaluation of several fundamental needs in the Ictio Grzmde Saavn which the CWCB <br />1 <br />i <br />