Environmental Assessment for the Tamarack Groundwater Recharge Project

• Description: Environmental Assessment ‎(EA)‎ for the Tamarack Ground Water Recharge Project at Tamarack State Wildlife Area and Pony Express State Wildlife Area related to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program ‎(PRRIP)‎
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 3/31/1999
• Author: Colorado Division of Wildlfe ‎(DOW)‎
• Title: Environmental Assessment ‎(EA)‎ for the Tamarack Managed Ground Water Recharge Project at Tamarack State Wildlife Area and Pony Express State Wildlife Area
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

I. SUMMARY
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW), in cooperation with the Colorado Water
Conservation Board and a coalition of water users, the South Platte Lower River Group
Inc. (SPLRG), is proposing to construct a series of water control facilities for managed
groundwater recharge at the Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area (TRSWA) and Pony
Express State Wildlife Area ( PESWA) in extreme northeastern Colorado. This project,
referred to in this document as the CDOW /CWCB /SPLRG Cooperative Project. The two
State Wildlife Areas (SWAs) are located in Logan and Sedgwick Counties respectively,
along the South Platte River (Figure 1.).
Under the CDOW /C'WCB /SPLRG Cooperative Project, numerous small storage /recharge
ponds will be created in upland areas bordering the South Platte flood plain. The ponds
will occupy natural depressions in areas characterized by semi - stabilized to stabilized sand
dunes. Water to fill the ponds will be drawn from wells near the South Platte River, and
will be conveyed to the ponds via buried pipelines. The water used to fill the ponds will be
water in excess of legal rights to and physical demands for water in Co
of the project is to create wetland environments at the SWAS's, reregu intent
late the timing lorado. The e of
flows in the South Platte River in such a manner as to ensure that wate
South Platte as seepage during low flow periods, and thereby benefit th r will return to the
e SWAB by creating
additional wetland habitat on upland sites and by enhancing existing riparian habitats
along the river through increased groundwater return flows. The construction of an
associated artificial live stream between ponds is also planned on the TRSWA. The stream
is intended to serve as an outdoor laboratory for study and propagation of threatened and
endangered (T &E) fish species found in the South Platte drainage in Colorado.
The project will have the incidental effect of reducing shortages to target flows in the
"associated habitats," as that term is defined in the Cooperative Agreement for Platte
River Research and Other Efforts Relating to Endangered Species Habitats Along the
Central Platte River, Nebraska (Cooperative Agreement) (Tab 3A, Colorado's Tamarack
Plan, of the Cooperative Agreement is Appendix A ). The project therefore will contribute
to Colorado's Tamarack Plan, as described in Tab 3A of the Cooperative Agreement.
II. PURPOSE AND NEED FOR ACTION
PURPOSE: The purposes of this project are:
1) to broaden the management and use of the TRSWA and PESWA to include benefits
to native fish species listed as threatened or endangered pursuant to Colorado law in
a manner that is consistent with the purposes for which these SWAs's were acquired
and developed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and;