BOARD02497

• Board Meeting Date: 7/14/1971
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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the dam was predicated upon the release of
5.000 cubic feet of water per second from the
dam at such times as flood flows were impounded
behind the dam. This was based in part upon the
rights of downstream water users. Actually. the I
decrees total more than 5.000 second feet. and
5.000 second feet was a compromise of figures.
However. that ,.lea,e i' ba,ed upon oth., oon,'d- ..
erations. If there is inflow below the dam then .
the flow from the dam will be reduced or stopped
entirely. The release of 5.000 second feet will
cause some flooding in the present channel. Those
of you may have observed the South Platte River
as you passed over it this morning. You noted
that in some places along the river it appears
to be running bank full. Actually. there is a
fairly small amount of water in the river. This
morning it was somewhere around 500 second feet
only. So we are talking about a release of ten
times what you see out there on the river today.
This would cause flooding in the downstream area.

In addition to the flooding problem. we have
a constant erosion problem on the South Platte
River. Even this map where the channel shows in
blue is inaccurate in some places. Since the
map was prepared the channel has changed. even
though there have been no floods as such. The
natural erosion of the South Platte is very high
along this stretch of the South Platte below the
dam. The channel changes constantly. To some
extent it changes daily. although the change may
be imperceptible. This has caused great problems
to the adjoining landowners. Over the years there
have been problems between the adjoining land-
owners. For instance. a man up here would have
a problem of the river cutting into his property.
He might spend several thousand dollars to put I
in dirt to push it back. Well. he pushes it
back on the man on the other side of the river.
So the next year the man on the other side pushes
it back across_ This type of thing has cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars in erosion prob-
lems alone through this area. In addition to
this. the erosion problem will be aggravated to