FLOOD01459

• County: Gunnison
• Community: Uncompahgre Valley
• Title: Upper Gunnison-Uncompahgre Basin Phase 1 Feasibility Study Summary Report
• Date: 5/1/1989
• Prepared For: Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority
• Prepared By: HDR Engineering, Inc.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Project

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HDR Engineering. Inc.

Suite 300
303 East 17th Avenue
Denver, Colorado
80203.1256

Telephone:
303 861.1300

Mr. Uli Kappus, P.E., Executive Director
Colorado Water Resources and
Power Development Authority
1580 Logan Street, Suite 620
Denver, CO 80203

Re: Summary Report for the Upper
Gunnison-Uncompahgre Basin
Phase 1 Feasibility Study

Dear Mr. Kappus:

We are pleased to submit this Summary Report as required by our
contract dated June 5, 1987. Five interim Task Memoranda have been
submitted previously, each reporting in detail on certain aspects of
the study. A Final Report which discusses the study in a more
detailed manner is submitted under separate cover.

The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate water
resource management plans to enhance the water-based economy of the
Study Area in an environmentally sound manner, Both structural and
non-structural components have been examined, evaluated and utilized
to formulate alternative plans which would meet in-basin needs. A
recommended plan has been identified which meets the study objective.

Non-structural measures related to the municipal and industrial
sector were found to have 1 ittle potential for saving water in the
context of this basin-wide study because the total consumptive use in
this sector is less than two percent of the total consumptive use in
the entire study area at present. Some of the measures ident ifi ed
should be considered for implementation at the local level in the
future, however, Non-structural measures identified in the
agricultural sector were determined to be either technically or
economically infeasible except for water rights exchanges and/or
transfers and drought leasing,

Six alternative development plans were evaluated as a means of
meeting future water demands and enhancing water-based recreation in
the Study Area. The preferred pl an cons i sts of the fo 11 owi ng: a
20,000 acre-foot multipurpose reservoir in the Ohio Creek basin; a
25,000 acre-foot multipurpose storage reservoir in the Tomichi Creek
basin; and ten recreation enhancement components. The total capital
cost of this plan is approximately $55 mill ion (January 1989 price
level).