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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />3. The prOV1Slon of enough "new" water to irrigate <br />30,000 acres of new lands, and the provision of <br />supplemental water for a substantial irrigated <br />area below the reservoir. <br /> <br />4. Incident to No. 3 above, enable Colorado purport- <br />edly to comply with the terms of the Colorado <br />River Compact in not permitting Colorado. River <br />water to flow into a state which is not defined <br />by the Compact as a Colorado River Basin State. <br /> <br />5. Incidental sediment, fish and wild life, and <br />recreation benefits. <br /> <br />933 <br /> <br />The greatest local negative benefit would be the taking out <br />of production a substantial acreage of irrigated land in the <br />Weldona Valley. <br /> <br />The plan proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation at the time <br />the Colorado Water Conservation Board suggested a restudy, <br />consisted of a conventional type of dam across the river at the <br />Narrows site which would provide a reservoir with a capacity <br />of from 600,000 a.f. to 800,000 a.f., a spillway of sufficient <br />capacity to pass the spillway design flood, and a flood channel <br />extending from Bijou Creek to the reservoir. The construction <br />and maintenance of such a flood channel on Bijou Creek to the <br />reservoir would be very difficult and very expensive. After the <br />problem was reopened for study, the present plan I have described <br />above was gradually evolved. It was felt that it was cheaper <br />to construct a dam sufficiently high to provide the 818,000 acre- <br />feet of surcharge capacity to contain the spillway design flood <br />than it would be to construct a spillway to pass such flood. The <br />present plan would eliminate the expensive flood channel between <br />Bijou Creek and the South Platte. It is my opinion that the plan <br />now proposed by the Bureau"of Reclamation is sound from an engin- <br />eering approach; the dam is located at the best site, and the <br />best type of structure for the site has been selected. <br /> <br />Independent water-supply studies made by the engineering <br />staff of the Colorado Water Conservation Board disclosed that <br />the water-supply studies made by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation <br />are on the conservative side. The factor of safety allowed by <br />the Bureau to take care of operation losses is believed to be <br />ample. The Bureau's last studies also were based upon the supp- <br />osition that decrees would be entered by the appropriate district <br />courts for multiple fillings of the reservoirs in the South <br />Platte Basin. <br />