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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I PROJECT SUMMARY The Fort Lyon Canal Company is a mvtuol ditch company that supplies water for the irrigation of about 93,000 acres of land in Otero, Bent, and Prowers Counties in southeostern Colorado. Irrigation from what is now the Fort Lyon Conal dotes bock to 1860, making it one of the oldest as well as one of the largest irrigation systems in Colorado. The Canol Company operates two distinct conal systems for which water is diverted under separate water rights and priorities. The Fort Lyon Canal is the direct flow diversion and water distribution canal. The Fort Lyon Storage Canal supplies water to the Horse Creek-Adobe Creek Reservoir complex. Water is released from the Horse Creek-Adobe Creek Reservoir complex into the Fort Lyon Conal for delivery to the Fort Lyon irrigators. The Fort Lyon Canol is about 110 miles long, extending generally from La Junta to Lamar, on the northern side of the Arkansas River. Its capacity varies from about 1,800 cubic feet per second (cfs) in its western division to about 600 cfs in downstream segments. The Fort Lyon irrigators receive water through more than 200 laterals distributed along the Fort Lyon Conal. The Fort Lyon Storage Conal diversion dam is located near Manzanola, Colorado, about 15 miles upstream from the Fort Lyon Canol diversion dam. This canal is about 46 miles long and has 0 capacity of about 1,800 cfs. Water from Horse Creek and Adobe Creek, as well as water from the Arkansas River, ore stored in Horse Creek and Adobe Creek Reservoirs. The reservoirs hove a combined decreed capacity of 115,000 ocre- feet, and the Canal Company has opened them to public hunting and fishing in cooperation with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. In addition to diverting for and delivering water to its own irrigators, the Canal Company also diverts water for the Great Plains Water Storage System. This water is diverted into the Fort Lyon Canal under the priority of the Great Plains Water Storage System and is transported a distance of about 42 miles to the point where it is bifurcated into the Kicking Bird Conal for delivery the remaining distance to the storage system. The Great Plains Water Storage System provides supplemental storage water for about 35,000 acres irrigated under the Amity Conal. Although the Conal Company's irrigation system is presently operable, it is in need of 0 considerable amount of rehabilitation ar'ld repair in order to maintain the present ili