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Project Summary for the Preferred Alternative <br />Project Location <br />Lake Meredith is located in Crowley County, Colorado in Townships 21 and 22 S, <br />Ranges 56 and 57 West of the 6 th P.M. The lake receives water from the Arkansas <br />River and storage releases are made for irrigation and municipal use. <br />Project Objectives <br />The project has been designed to meet the six primary objectives listed below. <br />1. Facilitate Full Use of Reservoir Contents. The original alignment of the channel, <br />though expedient and less expensive, is a sump that collects the fine - grained <br />sediment that can't be removed. The objective is to move the outlet channel to <br />higher elevations where the tendency for sedimentation will be less. It is extremely <br />important to expedite this objective in 2003 because of the continuing drought. <br />2. Prevent and Minimize the Potential for Future Deposition in the Channel. <br />Sedimentation effects on the new channel would be caused by unavoidable flow <br />from the reservoir pool during releases or from wave action and density currents <br />within the pool. The effects of wave action will be eliminated by constructing a <br />break -water beach on the east side of the channel. <br />3. Facilitate Future Maintenance Dredging. The cost of dredging has been high, <br />partially because the channel cannot be dried up and the equipment must move <br />saturated sediment and sludge. The proposed design includes a new, second outlet <br />to allow the channel to be dried up for dredging or flooded when water storage is <br />required. <br />4. Sediment Removal from Bob Creek Flow. Sediment carried by Bob Creek into the <br />reservoir will be removed by a dedicated sediment trap /channel that parallels the <br />new channel. This should enhance the water quality of reservoir releases to the <br />Arkansas River. <br />5. Dam Embankment Enhancement. The reservoir has a fetch distance of over 2 <br />miles and wave heights of four to six feet. The crest of the proposed breakwater dike <br />will be six feet above the high water elevation so that the dike will absorb the wave <br />energy and provide a stilled pool within the channel. <br />6. Use of Resources and Minimizing Impacts. The excavation of the new channel, <br />considered essential, will require disposal of over 900,000 cubic yards of excavated <br />soils consisting primarily of adobe clay. These soils could be merely placed beside <br />the channel and put to no particular use. Instead, the design will maximize the use <br />of the soils by using some to form the breakwater dike and beach, some to provide <br />the dikes for the sediment traps, and the remainder will be placed at a location where <br />it could be effectively used for future embankment construction. <br />Lake Meredith Res. Co. 3/7/03 <br />Feasibility of Outlet Channel Page 2 <br />