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Page 5 <br />rehabilitated by the Leach family, the prior owners of the reservoir, and used as a storage <br />location for augmentation supplies in accordance with the Decree in Case No. 80CW194. <br />The District purchased the Smelter Pipeline Reservoir in 2005, and the reservoir has been <br />empty since the fall of 2008. In 2006 and 2007, the reservoir was filled in the springtime. <br />The District proposes improvements to the Smelter Pipeline Reservoir to return its water <br />storage function. By filling in a portion of the reservoir and deepening the rest of it, the <br />modified reservoir would have a reduced surface area of 3.39 acres with an expanded storage <br />capacity of 28 af. Specific project activities would include removing sediment and debris <br />from the slopes and bottom of the reservoir to increase the storage capacity, recontouring the <br />existing reservoir and installing a geomembrane liner below the reservoir, filling the western <br />portion of the reservoir below the ordinary high water mark with excess fill; and installing a <br />buried relief pipe and/or cutoff wall on the western edge of the reservoir. As a result of the <br />project improvements, the modified Smelter Pipeline Reservoir would have a different <br />footprint, but still within the existing footprint of the reservoir. <br />As part of the overall improvements at the Smelter Pipeline Reservoir, the District also <br />proposes improvements to the inlet and outlet structures. The existing inlet pipe and outlet <br />valve would be evaluated, and then depending on conditions, would be repaired or replaced. <br />A new staff gauge and flow meter vault would be installed. A 6 -inch perforated pipe also <br />would be installed along the existing water release ditches to allow for both summer and <br />winter releases. The existing inlet pipe would be extended into the new reservoir footprint. <br />The District's boundaries are Park County; hence, the water that would be stored in the <br />reservoir can be used within Park County. Since the District has other water rights in various <br />locations within Park County, the primary uses for the water stored in the Smelter Pipeline <br />Reservoir are anticipated to be within the Middle Fork of the South Platte River upstream of <br />Spinney Mountain Reservoir. <br />The District is not a municipal water provider; its primary use of the Smelter Pipeline <br />reservoir would be as an augmentation water storage structure. Currently, the reservoir is not <br />included within the District's countywide augmentation plan, and it has no customers that <br />would use augmentation water from the reservoir. That is anticipated to change over time as <br />the District adds customers to its augmentation plan and the reservoir is incorporated into the <br />Plan. <br />The only existing use of the Smelter Pipeline Reservoir for augmentation was adjudicated in <br />Case No. 80CW194, District Court, Water Division No. 1, where the reservoir structure is the <br />augmentation pond for the Adventure Placer Subdivision in Park County. The 80CW194 <br />augmentation plan was adjudicated by the Leach family. When the District acquired the <br />Smelter Pipeline Reservoir in 2005, it assumed the obligation to operate the 80CW 194 <br />augmentation plan as part of its purchase. The 80CW194 Decree provided that, at full build - <br />out, 2.28 of per year of augmentation water was to be stored in the reservoir to be released to <br />Mosquito Creek, which is tributary to the South Platte River, during the non - irrigation season. <br />