PROJ00505

• Contract/PO #: C153419
• Contractor Name: San Miguel Water Conservancy District
• Water District: 0
• County: San Miguel
• Bill Number: XB 99-999
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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CRAPTER 4.0
WATER

4.1

lntroduction

Water supply in the west typically follows the same pattern. Accumulated

winter snowpack melts and runs off within 2 or 3 months each spring. The soil

mantle becomes saturated at higher elevations and streams flood in their

downstream reaches. The area encompassed by the San Miguel Water Conservancy

District is no exception. Snowpack is deposited on the high, steep slopes of

Lone Cone, a 12,600 foot peak found west of the District. Runoff is drained

from the high country by creeks which cut through foothill plateaus enroute to

the canyon of the San Miguel River. Often, over 80 percent of the total annual

flow is carried by the creek in the 2 or 3 month flood season.

For the past 100 years or so, local farmers have diverted these

short-lived floods onto fields to sustain crops of perennial grasses. Because

most of the irrigable land was found on sloping foothill plateaus and creeks

were entrenched in steep canyons, 1005 ditches were necessary to deliver water

from the creeks to the fields. The farmers soon realized that by combining

resources, ditches could be more easily and cheaply constructed. Numerous

companies were formed to build and maintain ditches and in some cases, storage

reservoirs. Storage is the key to effective use of water in the area. By

storing the excess supply in spring, releases are available later in the

growing season. A dependable supply of water encourages higher value crops and

makes two cuttings of alfalfa hay possible.

Adequate storage has long been the desire of many irrigators in the San

Miguel Water Conservancy District. The District was formed to facilitate the

construction and implementation of the San Miguel Project, a United States

Bureau of Reclamation project, as part of the larger Colorado River Storage

Project. The original project included a large reservoir on the San Miguel

River and an elaborate, pumped distribution system. The proposed Cone

Reservoir Enlargement provides a much smaller scale method to provide

additional storage in the District. lts location will allow the use of

existing collection and distribution ditches. Although the enlargement cannot

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