FLOOD00413

• Designation Number: 339
• County: Delta
• Community: Unincorporated Delta County
• Title: FIS - Delta County, Colorado, Unincorporated Areas
• Date: 8/1/1991
• Designation Date: 3/1/1993
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

Name

(Cont'd)

Crystal
Reservoir
Paonia
Reservoir

.

Stream

Capacity
(acre/feet)

Drainage
Area
(sQuare miles)

Location

Gunnison River

24,000

--1

Near Cimarron
(Montrose County)
Above Somerset
(Gunnison County)

Muddy Creek

21,000

246

..

lNot Available

Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal Reservoirs, situated end to
end on Gunnison River downstream from the City of Gunnison,
comprise the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Curecanti Storage Unit.
Blue Mesa Reservoir, furthest upstream, is the major storage
feature of the unit (Reference 10). Taylor Park, Blue Mesa,
Morrow Point, Crystal, and Paonia Reservoirs contribute to the
reduction of 100- and 500-year flows along Gunnison River.

On North Fork Gunnison River, the Paonia Reservoir, located
approximately 15 miles upstream of Paonia, has been regulating
floodflows since 1961. The reservoir, constructed by the U.S.
Power and Water Resources Service (formerly the U. S. Bureau of
Reclamation), contains 21,000 acre-feet of storage capacity and
reduces the 10-, 50-, and 100-year floodflows at the Somerset
U.S. Geological Survey stream gage No. 09132500 by approximately
17, 13, and 6 percent, respectively. No protection is afforded
for the 500-year flood (Reference 10).

There are no flood-control projects affecting floodflows or flood
elevations on Uncompahgre River. However, the Dallas Creek
Project, located approximately 32 miles upstream of Olathe at
Ridgeway, Colorado, in Montrose County, is expected to help
control flooding problems. As of June 1980, this project was
approximately 5 percent completed and can be expected to be
operational in March 1984. A reservoir, to be named Ridgeway
Reservoir, will be created that will have 80,000 acre-feet of
storage, with additional flood-control storage for spring runoff
of 26,000 acre-feet. A 1973 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report
states that this project will reduce the standard project flood
of 7,000 cfs to a flow of 3,700 cfs at the dam site
(Reference 11). Operation of the reservoir for conservation and
storage based on snowmelt forecasts would provide some flood-
control benefits to downstream floodplain areas. Because the
project will not be operational within 18 months of completion of
this study, the dam was not considered in this study.

Improvements such as dikes and bank protection have been made at
various locations along Uncompahgre River. The dikes along

17