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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I CHAPTER VII: PROJECT EVALUATION A. General. This project is proposed to rehabilitate the two dams at North Poudre Reservoir No. 2 which is an existing water storage reservoir owned by The North Poudre Irrigation Company. The water from this facility is used for irrigation of crop and pasture land. The rehabilitation of Reservoir No. 2 will allow North Poudre to continue to supply water to its downstream shareholders. Approximately 3,400 acres of land is presently being irrigated from water stored and distributed through Reservoir No.2. The reservoir is currently under a hold order at a Gage Height of 18.0 feet which provides for a storage capacity of 2378 acre-feet. Rehabilitation of the dam will allow North Poudre to store a total of 3910 acre-feet of water for an increase of 1532 acre-feet. Without rehabilitation, it is very possible the dam will have further restrictions placed on it or that a partial failure of the East Dam may occur which would jeopardize the ability of North Poudre to continually supply water to the downstream users. Without rehabilitation, it is expected that within five (5) years to ten (10) years the dam will experience greatly reduced capacities either due to an outlet failure or increased restriction by the State Engineer. Various options and alternatives have been studied to determine the feasible alternatives available and the costs associated with each. The following analysis is an attempt to look at the costs and benefits of each to provide The North Poudre Irrigation Company a basis for determining the best alternative to fit their needs and budget. To provide an economic analysis of the various options the economic life of the various alternatives had to be determined and the economic value of the water right determined. The economic life as defined in Enqineerinq Economv by Thueseu, Fabrycky, and Thuesen, 1977, 5th Edition is as follows: "The economic life is also referred to as the minimum cost life or the optimum replace- ment interval". We have chosen to estimate the economic life based on the optimum replacement interval which we based on engineering judgement and on the economic life used in Handbook of Dam Enqineerinq by Alfred R. Golze, 1977. From this we consider the dam and reservoir to have an economic life of at least 75 years if a complete rehabilitation of the dam is completed. However, because of the project loan period being 40 years, that will be used in the following economic analyses. For the economic value of the water right we have based that cost on the market value of water and its projected value. Water for replacement of water to the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins is currently selling for $600 to $1000 per acre-foot. This same water was selling for in excess of $2000 per acre-foot in the VII-l