PROJ00506

• Contract/PO #: C153824
• Contractor Name: Preisser, Rodney J.
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 17
• County: Lincoln
• Bill Number: SPL
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

Horse Creek, Steel Fork and other tributaries of Little Horse

Creek above Horse Creek constitute a separate basin; that Horse

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Creek receives water from these t~1hQtar~s ondY in time of
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flood; that there is no significant hydraulic connection between
this basin and the Arkansas River; that ground water in storage
in the basin would not reach the Arkansas River for a period between
300 and 800 years, if it would reach the Arkansas at all; that

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return ~lows from proposed uses on Fountain Creek would amount to
approximately fifty percent of the water delivered to contracting
parties. in the Fountain Creek drainage, would flow down Fountain
Creek into the Arkansas and would increase the available supply

in the Arkansas, and that the wells in this basin should not be
administered as part of the Arkansas River supply, and the Court
so finds.

15. It appears from Exhibit A that the lands of applicants
lie across the drainages of Little Horse Creek and the Steel Fork
of LHqe Horse Creek. There are apP:.o~i.IIl':~.".1.Y_:l.~O..~.gll~~:ttes of
drainage area above the confluence of Little Horse Creek with Horse
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Creek, ap'p'roximately 80 SQuare miles of which lies above the
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applicants' land.and'would be affected in some degree by withdrawal
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of water from applicants' wells. The average annual precipitation
over the drainage area is 13.3 inches. Mr. Brogden, Objectors'
expert witness, believes ten per sent or 1.3 inches, infiltrates into
the ground water. Mr. Palos and Dr. Bittinger, applicants' expert
witnesses, take a more conservative position, and believe that about
seven and one-half percent, or 1 inch, of recharge is a better figure.

16. The lands of objector, Smith Cattle, Inc., lie to

the south and within about two miles of applicants 1 lands. Its
irrigation requirements are supplied from springs and from sur-
face runoff. As 1s true of most of the other objectors, Smith,

Cattle, Inc. relies for its intensive irrigation of alfalfa upon
ground water which, 1n the case of Smith Cattle, Inc. J supplies
the springs) and upon flood waters durin~ the snow melting season