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thing, and the type of the stream bed. So as far <br />as flood protection from Bijou Creek itself, the <br />Hoyt Reservoir would do everything that a reser- <br />voir at any point would do. <br />In addition to that, the sediment load was <br />mentioned, that it would pick up below the Hoyt <br />Reservoir in the river and it would still have to <br />be a problem. Now, in my opinion, if you control <br />all of the water at a certain point, you have no <br />energy to drive any silt to the river at all so <br />it becomes an issue, or a problem, that disap- <br />pears automatically. You can't move sediment <br />without energy and the energy is supplied by <br />flowing water. So if it is entirely uneconomic <br />then perhaps the Bijou should be handled by water- <br />shed management practices and retardation dams <br />similar to the construction that is on Kiowa Creek <br />at the present time. It seems like that is working <br />out quite well. I had a conversation with Mr. <br />Bittinger and he said they had 2000 feet come <br />down Kiowa Creek during the summer and it all <br />disappeared before it crossed Highway 36, I be- <br />lieve. That water then is returned to the soil <br />and becomes available for the large pumping area. <br />That would be true with flood flows that origin- <br />ate in the Bijou. They would return to that <br />pumping area which is slowly being depleted. <br />In addition to that there was reference made <br />that there would be a conflict with rights in the <br />river and that statement is correct. While, at <br />the present time, when Bijou Creek is flowing, the <br />water is unusable because of the heavy silt load <br />to the irrigation people and it's a nuisance to <br />them and they don't use the water. At critical <br />times with the Bijou people, the Riverside people <br />and the Morgan people, they sometimes pick up <br />water directly from the river by virtue of the <br />senior decrees being unable to use the river be- <br />cause it's being contaminated with Bijou waters. <br />I think for what small amount of water that's <br />involved - it's annually about 3,000 acre-feet - <br />that that could be served by either one of the <br />two sites that the Bureau has selected. <br />-44- <br />