PROJ00515

• Contract/PO #: FS0019X
• Contractor Name: Turkey Creek Snowball Creek Project CWRPDA 1985
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 0
• County: Archuleta
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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Adolph Coors Company owns 400 acres near the confluence of the East
Fork and the West Fork of the San Juan River. Pagosa Springsi raw water
intake is just upstream from the property. Coors currently owns or
controls water rights on the East Fork of the San Juan, Johnny Creek, and
Deer Creek. It also owns a small water right on the West Fork of the San
Juan. Coors has no immediate plans for development. Due to the
feasibility level of the Snowball Creek Study, Coors is not willing to
commit to being a participant in the project. If Coors was interested in
participating, it would be for augmentation purposes.

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Increasing the size of the reservoir for irrigation purposes was
briefly explored. Most of the irrigated area within a 2,000 foot corridor
of the proposed pipeline from the Snowball Dam site obtains water from the
Snowball Ditch Company or from diversions along Four Mile Creek. Mr. and
Mrs. J.W. Hershey and Macht Ranch, Inc. own approximately 75 percent of the
land contiguous to the proposed pipeline route. Both landowners have
expressed opposition to construction of a dam on Snowball Creek.

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The Archuleta Water Company surrounds Pagosa Springs and is supplied
water by Pagosa Springs. The water purchase agreement between the two
entities is discussed in Section 1.3.5 and a copy of the agreement is
included in Appendix E. Pagosa Springs is currently dependent on direct
flow from the San Juan River. The Town has only a small storage reservoir
capable of providing a few days water supply in the event of a pipeline
rupture or drought. Because Pagosa Springs current system has experienced
several pipeline ruptures in the recent past, it has been forced to seek
alternate supplies during the sometimes lengthy repairs. The water demands
for Pagosa Springs and Archuleta Water Company are presented in Section
2.2. Based on the information presented herein, only the water demands of
Pagosa Springs and Archuleta Water Company will be taken into account in
the reservoir sizing. The developments and entities previously mentioned
expressed interest in the contents of this study, but they were unwilling
to commit to being project participants for a variety of reasons. Reasons
for not participating vary from having other water supply options, to their
plans being too preliminary to make a commitment.

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