PROJ00279

• Contract/PO #: C153572
• Contractor Name: North Poudre Irrigation Company
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 3
• County: Larimer
• Bill Number: HB 85-1042
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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alternate to rehabilitating the reservoir. This was not believed
to be a viable alternative for two reasons. The first and most
apparant reason is the difficulty in operating that part of the
system without a reasonably close reservoir to allow control of
flows. The area served by No. 2 could be serviced out of
Reservoir No. 15 but the distance from No.15 to the service area
would make operation and control of the water much more difficult.
The second reason is the difficulty in transferring water rights
through the water courts due to objectors and the probable loss of
some of the water right when this is attempted. Transfers of this
nature today generally require a compromise with other owners of
water in the basin and result in a loss of water with some of the
water being transferred in the form of a water payment to the
other water users in the basin. Thus, transfer of the water does
not appear to be feasible or desirable at this point in time.

B. Water Utilization. Reservoir No. 2 is essentially an
offstream reservoir which is filled from surface water rights from
the North Fork of the Cache La Poudre River and the Cache La
Poudre River. The reservoir acts as a storage reservoir in the
North Poudre System but is not a main storage reservoir as are
Halligan, Park Creek, or Reservoir No. 15. The use of water
stored in No. 2 is only for those irrigated lands that lie
immediately below the Reservoir. No municipal water use is
provided from Reservoir No.2 and none is expected in the foresee-
able future. The only use currently is to irrigate crops and
pastures. Water is normally not stored in No. 2 and then diverted
to other reservoirs for use as is the case with many of the plains
reservoirs. However, water can be diverted from No.2 to Reservoir
No.5 and there is a decree No. 38 to provide for this filling. It
is our understanding from North Poudre personnel that No.5 is not
normally filled through No.2.

The firm or safe yield of a reservoir is generally defined as
"the maximum quantity of water which can be guaranteed during a
critical dry period". The safe yield of Reservoir No. 2 was not
evaluated by analysis of the available flow of water in the Cache
La Poudre or North Fork of the Cache La Poudre Rivers. It was
evaluated only by review of the past history or record of filling
of the reservoir to ascertain whether the reservoir is filled to
capacity in wet and dry years and is beneficially put to use. A
summary of the water records are shown in APPENDIX D and on Figure
IV-1 of the text for the years 1950 through 1988. Note that the
records are not complete for the years 1957, 1958, and 1959.

From the records attached and from reviewing Figure IV-1 it
can be seen that the reservoir is filled to near capacity most
years and significantly drawn down each year. In the 37 years of
record studied, the reservoir has never been filled to Gage Height
24.0 but has been filled to Gage Height 22.0 or above in 13 of the
37 years and to Gage Height 18.0 and above in 32 of the 37 years.
There were only 5 years in the 37 year record in which the
reservoir was not filled to Gage Height 18.0 feet or greater. The
lowest fill level of record is Gage Height 12.1 which was in 1955.

IV-2