BOARD01178

• Board Meeting Date: 2/4/1955
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

5-25

APPENDIX A
MEMORANDUM
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February 1955

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TO:
FROM:

Ivan C. Crawford
R. M. Gildersleeve

SUBJECT: Laramie River Water Supply for the Period
1914-1953, inclusive.

In the original Laramie River case, the
United States Supreme Court concluded, with respect
to the available water supply of the Laramie River,
that the natural and varying flow of this stream at
Woods, which is after the recognized Colorado
appropriations are satisfied, is susceptible by
means of practicable storage and conservation of
being converted into a fairly constant and dependable
flow of 170,000 acre-feet per year.

I

This conclusion was based on an analysis of
the available records of runoff prior to 1914 at the
gaging stations at Woods and at Pioneer Dam, which
is located about four miles below Woods, and at which
point the combined flow of the Laramie River and the
Pioneer Canal diversions could be measured. In
arriving at the estimate of 170,000 acre-feet at
Woods, the Court assumed that 4,000 acre-feet of water
was diverted between Woods and the Pioneer Dam and did'
not return to the river above the lower gaging station.

Records of runoff at the lower gaging station,
designated as "Laramie River and Pioneer Canal near
Woods, Wyoming", are available for all but six years
of the period 1914 to 1953, and a comparison may be
made between the amount of actual runoff for that
period and the amount estimated by the Court-based
on conditions existing between 1889 and 1913. There
was no concurrent period of record when both gaging
stations were operated.