BOARD00835

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/1999
• Description: CF Section - New Loans - Leroux Creek Water User Association - Carl Smith Dam Rehabilitation
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Pro.iect Sponsor and Existin2 Facilities

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The Leroux Creek Water Users Association (LCWUA) is a non-profit corporation and a
mutual ditch company incorporated in 1948. There are about 5,800 shares of stock in the
association and 100 water users. Water is provided for the irrigation of about 5,000 acres
ofland on Redlands Mesa north of Hotchkiss. Included are about 1,000 acres of fruit
orchards as well as about 4,000 acres of feed crops and pasture land. In addition, two
municipal water providers, the town of Hotchkiss and the Rogers Mesa Domestic Water
Company, own shares in the Association.

The Company owns and operates all 28 of the reservoirs in the upper Leroux Creek basin,
which is tributary to the North Fork of the Gunnison River. Carl Smith reservoir is an off-
channel facility, which receives diversions from Leroux Creek. It is the lowest reservoir
in the Leroux Creek system and provides equalizing storage, The reservoir is therefore a
key component of the LCWUA system.

Water Ri2hts

Storage decrees for Carl Smith date back to 1963 with absolute decrees for about 718
acre-feet and one conditional decree for 536 acre-feet. Storage records from 1970 to 1997
indicate that the reservoir was filled to capacity (about 800 acre-feet) in 23 of the 27 a
years. _

Alternatives Investi2ated

The Smith Geotechnical feasibility study analyzed four alternatives for the dam including
a pennanent dam breach, a smaller structure, restoration of the existing dam and a larger
dam, The costs of the alternatives are summarized in Table 1.

Table I. Summary of Alternatives

Permanent Breach
Reduce Dam Height .
Maintain Dam Height
Increase Dam Hei ht

!l.
o
375
800
1,600

NA
$2,052
$1,650
$2,742

Maintaining the existing dam height with 800 acre-feet of storage was the optimum
solution and the selected alternative.

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