Laserfiche WebLink
<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />The Rio Grande Compact imposes variable delivery obligations according <br />to annual supplies; thus, the State Engineer is forced to meet <br />something of a moving target of deliveries. The use of the reservoirs <br />in this program minimizes the occurrences of over-deliveries to Texas <br />and New Mexico, and maximizes the quantities of water available for <br />beneficial use in Colorado. In 1981, W.W. Wheeler and Associates <br />estimated that the benefit of thi s program exceeded 25,000 acre-feet <br />annually for Colorado water users. <br /> <br />D. Operation of the Water Storage and Supply System <br /> <br />Project planning and feasibility requires that the operation of <br />alternative project configurations be examined so that the effec- <br />tiveness of repairing Continental and Santa Maria dams can be <br />calculated. A reservoir operation study is the simulated operation of <br />the supply system over a period of years. In thi s study the period <br />1956 thrugh 1986, totalling 31 years, was selected because it is suf- <br />ficiently long to incorporate precipitation trends and includes both <br />drought and wet years. <br /> <br />As part of this engineering analysis, two scenarios of the simu- <br />1 ated operati onal study were developed to estab 1 i sh the increased <br />yield that would be, achieved with improvements to the reservoirs such <br />that the hold orders were 1 ifted and full storage volumes coul d be <br />utilized. Each scenario was done using identical crop demands, water <br />availability, and water right priorities, but storage capacity of the <br /> <br />IV - 12 <br />