BOARD01567

• Board Meeting Date: 5/1/1975
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

Creek and Ridgway on the Uncompahgre River. Looking first at the Dallas
Divide system, water would be diverted from the East and West Forks of
Dallas Creekffom April through september with major diversions in June
and July. The Dallas Feeder Canal would convey the water to Dallas Divide
Reservoir. Water from the reservoir would be released to Pleasant Valley
Creek for irrigation of supplemental service lands, and to the Log Hill I
Mesa conduit to project lands and municipal uses on Log Hill Mesa. Addi-
tional project supplies for both ir~igation and municipal uses would be
provided by pumping from the Uncompahgre River and Dallas Creek through
the Ridgway pumping system. Some water for irrigation would also be
developed from local streams on Log Hill Mesa.

The water for Ridgway Reservoir would be obtained from the Uncompahgre
River and from imported flows from Cow Creek through a one mile long
feeder canal. Exchanges of project supplies with existing supplies
would be effected to permit optimum utilization of the water available.

Seasonal operation of conservation storage, based on forecasts of snow-
melt inflow, would provide appreciable flood control benefits along the
Uncompahgre River downstream from the Ridgway Dam and Reservoir. An
atmosphere of safety would be a great asset to the well-being and
prosperity of the area.

An additional impact is that approximately 31,600 tons of salt that would
be removed from the river annually by project diversions, while only
about 18,500 tons of salt would be picked up in return flows as a result
of project operation. As a result, the salt load of the Colorado River
would be reduced by an average of 13,100 tons annually.

Recreation facilities would be constructed at both Ridgway and Dallas
Divide Reservoirs. Fish flows would be maintained below project diver-
sions on the East and West Forks of Dallas Creek and below Ridgway Dam.

Now, let's look at the location of some of the project features from a
series of slides.

Water would be diverted from the East Fork of Dallas Creek, at the lower
end of Willow Swamp, into the Dallas Feeder Canal. The canal would
tunnel through this ridge, It would traverse this area on about this
alignment and pick up additional water from these two branches of West
Fork of Dallas Creek, and continue in a westerly direction to Dallas
Divide where it would be siphoned under Highway 62.

Twelve and one-half miles from its beginning on East Fork, the Dallas I
Feeder Canal would empty into Dallas Divide Reservoir where it would be
stored until needed for project purposes. The dam axis, located here,
would create a reservoir in this general area. The reservoir would
normally reach its maximum content in August and its low point the fol-
loWing March. The National Park service estimates 79,400 visitox':days
of recreation use annually, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
anticipates 8,500 man-days of fishing.

This is a schematic diagram of the reservoir with a dam height of 167 feet

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