San Juan River/Delores Division 7 Durango RICD 06CW09 Boating Park Hydrology Study

• File Number: 06CW09
• Description: City of Durango Boating Park Hydrology Study - RICD
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 2/1/2006
• Author: W.W.Wheeler and Associates, Inc. Water Resources Engineers Englewood, CO
• Title: City of Durango Boating Park Hydrology Study
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

MAXIMUM UTILIZATION
Federal Policies
The proposed RICD will work in tandem with the Animas -La Plata Project to
promote maximum use of Animas River flows. The water commanded by the RICD may
be available for diversion at the Durango Pumping Plant or used to satisfy Animas -La
Plata bypass requirements. To this end, there may be situations when the RICD will
serve to benefit the Animas -La Plata Project while promoting maximum utilization within
the State of Colorado.
The following hypothetical situation describes how the proposed RICD water right
might work in tandem with the Animas -La Plata Project in certain situations:
In the first part of April, the Animas River flows at the Boating Park drop to 380
cfs. During early April, the Animas -La Plata Project bypass requirement is 225
cfs. The RICD water right could place a call against upstream junior water rights
for an additional 20 cfs to satisfy its claim for 400 cfs at the Boating Park.
Because the RICD is non - consumptive, the RICD call would also provide
approximately 400 cfs at the Durango Pumping Plant, which would satisfy the
225 cfs bypass requirement and permit Animas -La Plata diversions of
approximately 175 cfs (400 cfs minus 225 cfs). Without the Boating Park call,
pumping operations at the Animas -La Plata Project might have been a reduced
amount.
Streamflow Availability
We have performed calculations to demonstrate the availability of streamflow to
satisfy the proposed RICD appropriations. It is noted that the proposed RICD
appropriations are the same for all of the Boating Park structures during July 15 through
April 30, but the proposed appropriations are largest for Structures 5 and 9 during the
remainder of the year. The larger proposed appropriations for structures 5 and 9 were
used herein for the analysis of streamflow availability. As was mentioned previously,
streamflow at the Boating Park location is equal to the Animas River gage streamflow
plus the Lightner Creek streamflow. Daily streamflow at the Animas River gage has
been published from 1897 through 2004; however, daily streamflow data was not
consistently available until 1928. As a result, we have set the analysis study period to
12