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. '" Proposal to Enlarge Black Lake No, 1 March 2005 Page 6 . the alluvial well field located at the upper end of the Vail Golf Course by 1,5 cfs, The water that historically would have been diverted at the well field thus remains in Gore Creek and the Eagle River downstream to the intakes for the Avon Water Treatment Plant. In 1997, the Vail Mountain Ski Area completed construction of the Dowds Junction snowmaking intake facility at the confluence of Gore Creek and the Eagle River, This allows the ski area to effectively utilize in-basin sources of augmentation water available from Eagle Park and Homestake Reservoirs, The District and Vail Resorts have entered into an agreement that will allow the District to utilize the Dowds Junction intake for diversion of domestic water supply, A new water plant is scheduled for construction in 2008 that will treat water from this source, This will further reduce the demand for pumping from the well field while also allowing the District to directly utilize in-basin augmentation from Eagle Park and Homestake Reservoirs in lieu of a Green Mountain _ Reservoir exchange, The improvements described above, provide enhanced operational flexibility and reliability to the domestic water supply systems that serve the Town of Vail and communities along the Eagle River below Gore Creek, The District proposes to enter into an amended MOA with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources that would allow the District to use the 125 acre-feet of Black Lakes storage for all beneficial uses, including (but not limited to) supplemental water for the Vail Golf Course, During the winter months, the District proposes to implement a more flexible operating plan that would coordinate releases from Black Lakes with operations of the interconnecting water main and the future treatment plant for Dowds Junction intake water, . The new operating plan would allow the District to use any portion of the existing 300 acre-feet of storage for other beneficial uses to the extent the District utilizes water from the systems interconnect and/or the Dowds Junction intake and pipeline, in lieu of the District's Gore Creek alluvial well field, during the December through March period, By way of example, if the District obtains 100 acre-feet of water through the systems interconnect and/or the Dowds Junction intake during the December through March period, then 100 acre-feet of water could be reserved in Black Lakes by the District for other beneficial uses,_ The remaining 200 acre-feet ofthe existing capacity of Black Lakes would be dedicated to instream flow purposes during that same December through March period, and releases would be scheduled to augment instream flows during the most critical periods. The streamflow impacts of the proposed reservoir enlargement and operational changes are illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. In most years, Black Lakes will continue to fill during early spring runoff, usually well before the end of May on the rising limb of the hydrograph (Figure 4), Releases from storage in late summer and fall would be more than sufficient to replace diversions for irrigation at the Vail Golf Course and maintain CWCB instream flow levels, except in extremely dry years such as 2002 (Figure 5), Allowing greater flexibility for coordination of reservoir releases with operations of the interconnecting water main will enhance instream flow conditions, particularly in February and early March of most years, . Hydrosphere Resource Consultants, Inc., 1002 Walnut St, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302