Minutes of South Platte River Basin Flood Control Investigation Meeting

Home Browse Search

from scratch. We feel there is not enough of the old plan left to modify it and that we should start from scratch. Along in this period we were given separate authority to study Sand Creek. We have incor- portated Sand Creek with the overall basin until we can see more clearly whether it should be a separate project - we may want to cross Sand Creek out and handle it as a separate entity." Mr. Gardner continued that there are 19 separate and dis- tinct problem areas for flood control in the South Platte basin. The Denver Metropolitan area has first priority for study purposes which includes South Platte, Clear Creek, Little Dry, Big Dry and Sand Creek. Within that priority Sand Creek has had the first push. Where they stand today is something like this; we have, throughout all of these 19 problem areas, decided to get a run down of the dam- ageable values - damageable properties within those problem areas. We have started and done a lot of work on hydrology - the determina- tion of how often, with what frequency, floods of certain damageable value can be expected to occur at a given point. He explained that in their hydrologic studies the Corps was attempting to find out the highest to which floods of various magnitudes would rise within a 20 year period; that they were trying to find the total damage on the problem area, so much damage in an average year. After that they can go on to determine what they can do to relieve this damage but a plan must be feasible, on a one to one benefit -cost ratio. The project must return more than it will cost to build which limits them. Loss of life can also be used for justification. Practically all the economic data they need in the urban area has been accumulated, outside of a few specific things. They should know by next July in the Denver Metropolitan area at 13 locations the frequency with which floods of various magnitudes will occur. They are moving survey parties into this area within the next two weeks and to Sand Creek first to find out the amount of property that can be damaged and the extent of floods, i.e., average flood damages. That will reduce the problem to such terms that they can determine what can be constructed to relieve it. These available annual damages will not be known by the end of this fiscal year, Mr. Gardner said, but the Corps will have practically all of them at the beginning of the next fiscal year or before December 31, 1959, and they will be formulating projects which will prevent those damages. The Corps is desirous of coordinating with the Soil Con- servation Service in order to find out what to undertake on Sand -2-