PROJ00414

• Contract/PO #: C153326
• Contractor Name: Fruitland Mesa Water Conservancy District
• Contract Type: Grant
• Water District: 0
• County: Montrose
• Bill Number: XB 99-999
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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4. Increasing the storage capacity of Gould Reservoir beyond

12,000 acre feet does not increase the projected benefits commen-

surate with the cost of raising the dam to a corresponding

height. Therefore, optimum size of the reservoir is 12,000 acre

feet.

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5. The total annual runoff from Black Mesa is 9,870 acre feet.
If all of this runoff is diverted for irrigation use in the
project area being considered in this study, then only 1,380 acre
feet of water could be beneficially used in the system; the
remaining amount of water would spill out. The efficiency of
diversion is, therefore, only 14 percent. However, diversion of
only 4,056 acre feet of Black Mesa runoff that could be collected
from gulches up to and including the Long Gulch, to project area
would increase the diversion efficiency to be about 20 percent.
Obviously, this latter scheme is preferable.

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6. The diversion of Black Mesa runoff to Fruitland Mesa Project

is fraught with certain undesirable environmental effects and

would also necessitate taking required legal actions to acquire

water rights. Any of these two factors could become difficult to

resolve. The proposed project plan should cater for such an

eventuality. Therefore, the scheme of development, as presented

in this report is in two alternatives: one without Black Mesa

flow and the other with Black Mesa flow.

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7. The costs and the results of economic analyses of the two
alternative schemes are given below:

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Alternative I

(Without Black Mesa)
Runoff

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Gould Reservoir Capacity (ac ft)
Runoff from Black Mesa (ac ft)
Cost of Raising Dam and Dike ($)

12,000

Alternative II

(With Black Mesa)
Runoff

12,000

4,056

2,441,000

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2,441,000

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