BOARD00453

• Board Meeting Date: 2/26/1975
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

our exchanges instead of drying it up at point A, we will dry it up at
point B. For example, some of the exchanges that are customarily done
and which are essential to our continued good, economic conditions
in the Poudre Valley if the present exchange were reservoirs in the high
mountain areas, which are on the left hand side of your map, are filled
out in priority. The lower plains reservoirs being easier to build and
in many instances a senior priority. Now, if we fill those plains
reservoirs in priority, we would dry up the stream. But instead of 1
doing that, we store it in these high mountain storage reservoirs and
the stream is therefore drier a little quicker admittedly at times.
We have used these reservoirs in August when the streams get low and
this adds water to the stream. So it compensates. These high mountain
reservoirs are extremely essential from the standpoint of conservation
of water because they are in an extremely high altitude and the evapo-
ration is not comparable to the evaporation in the lower plains res-
ervoirs.

I thought just as an example I would give you some ideas under the other
exchanges. Let me mention one which is extremely important to the city
of Greeley. A minimum stream flow appropriation by the state of Colo-
rado would be extremely damaging to Greeley. Greeley owns Milton
Seaman reservoir. Greeley owns Barnes 8nd-Meadow reservoirs and cus-
tomarily waters are exchanged from Milton Seaman reservoir, which is
just above the mouth of the canyon, to those high mountain reservoirs
and will very much affect the stream flows below the Rustic.

The North Poudre diverts at the North Poudre pipeline which is just
where the North Fork comes in. Just above'that,the North Poudre
diverts the city of Greeley water, takes it out of the river. And the
city of Greeley is given credit by North Poudre reservoir and Horsetooth
reservoir, which is part of the Colorado Big Thompson project, or rather
in the CBr system. And Greeley takes it out from the Thompson River.
Water of the city of Greeley never flows in the river. So if you would
prohibit them from exchanging with North Poudre it would have no prac-
tical'~ay to use its water.

Another example which I am sure that the North Poudre people will want
to discuss with you at greater length concerns the North Poudre diver-
sions. The North Poudre system has 40,000 units of CHI water, water
in Horsetooth reservoir. There is no possible way for North Poudre to
use a drop of that water except by exchange. All of its headgates are
above the point where Horsetooth discharges into the river. North
Poudre uses that water only by exchanging it way up on the North Fork
at its North Poudre canal by releasing Horsetooth water to senior
appropriators downstream. If exchanges were prohibited because of some
minimum stream flow appropriations it would hurt this system.

Water Supply and Storage Company can dump into the Larimer and Weld
Canal of Mr. Kochenburger's company or it could bypass that and go
through another reservoir and dump right into the Poudre to satisfy
some of the downstream ditches from the new Cache La Poudre Irrigation
Company Ditch and the Greeley No. 2 Company. All of these discharges
from reservoirs, which these are just examples, depend entirely upon
the ability of these ditches to either get credit in Horsetooth

1

-15-