WSPC05269

• File Number: 8541
• Description: San Luis Valley Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Water Division: 3
• Date: 6/17/1955
• Author: R J Tipton
• Title: San Luis Valley Project Closed Basin Division - 1952-1955 - Memo: Proposed report on Rio Grande and Weminuche Pass Divisions, San Luis Valley Project, Rio Grande Basin, CO - June 1955
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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CONSULTING ENGINEER
610-611 INSURANCE BUILDING
DENVER, COLORAOO

.JINCY HUNT
SECRETARY

17 June 1955

Memorandum to: Ivan C. Crawford, Director
Colorado Water Conservation Board

R. J. Tipton, Consulting Engineer
Colorado Water Conservation Board

From:

Subject:

Proposed Report of Regional Director on Rio Grande
and Weminuche Pass Divisions, San Luis Valley Project,
Rio Grande Basin, Colorado - June 1955.

The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation submitted a Supplemental
Report on Rio Grande and Weminuche Pass Divisions, San Luis Valley
Project, Rio Grande Basin, Colorado, dated February 1953 to the
State of Colorado for comments. Dan Thornton, Governor of the
State of Colorado and Ex-Officio Chairman of the Colorado Water
Conservation Board, and Ivan C. Crawford, Director of the Colorado
Water Conservation Board made comments on the report on behalf
of the State of Colorado in a letter to the Secretary of the Department
of Interior dated August 12, 1953. That letter summarized the position
of the State of Colorado as follows:

a, The project as recommended by the Bureau of
Reclamation is not the most economical project
which can be conceived for the area to be benefited.

b. The recommended power features of the project cannot
be justified from an engineering or economic standpoint.

c. A reservoir with a capacity of 1,000,000 acre-feet
cannot be justified from an engineering standpoint.

d. The reduction in flood control benefits from the sum
of $361, 000 as found by both the Bureau of Reclamation
and Corps of Engineers in 1940, to the sum of $177,000;
as stated in the supplemental report of the Bureau of
Reclamation, appears unrealistic particularly when
considered in the light of substantial increase which
has occurred since 1940 in crop and property values.