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. , I . ~ 00G1 SuperL'ltendents Re}.)ort 1951 f -- .. .~ ,f~ To the 1md Owners of tIle Riverside IrriGation District: .: ... '.~ill . ;:;". , On lia;;r 1 last year "Fe had less water in storaGe than we hac! had at tilat tme in the last 10 years. At that tu.le the ga.ge rod read 213.0 feet, The maxi- mum reading was April 1 at 30.1 feet. The high mountain snow pacl~ l'ra.8 above nonnal and we had hopes of a he~~ runoff startinG early in r;a~' to complete filling the reservoir and suppl}" us Hi th much needed irriGation uater for our spring: c:!'ops, In or~ler to conserve as r:ruch ll:'lter as 11e could. for later Cl~OpS if the runoff c.l.idn. \ t rotcrialize we lrai ted mtil iia:" 31 before \Ie started a run of 1Iater, TIle reservoir had t;vm shr.lll~: to 278) feet. It. waiting: until this late date the weed grotrth ha.d a Good start and HiJ had difficuJ. t~r in M~:in[! efficient delivery. The river did cor,la up a. little t.he latter part of JW1e aad He vere able to run a total of 26 consecutive days J endins the run uhen t11C! river dropped orr. The reservoir cage was then 25.0 feet~ On Jl.tl:~ 5 the reservoir Gage read 25.3 feet and lie started a run of water. That nicJlt a ra.iJ1 from }1I to 1~1' fell over all of the Riverside territor:.r except a small area north of Jac!:son Lal~c, ~'lo imrHediately shut Ol~t w1til Jul~~ 9 to ::;tretch our meagre sllpplies as far as possible, 17e then ran for 10 nays re- ducinG the reservoir to 21.9 feet. On Jul:~ 25, after shuttinG out for 7 cl.a;;~s, 'Ide again st.arteo:!. a l"\m, The water supply then rema.:Ltrin{; uas far from being sufficient to finish the season, Providence smiled upon us for the river came up Aug" 4 from the noods that heavily damaced areas around Fort Collins and Loveland and we uere able to dra\1 all the lfater our intal~e ditch \l'Ot'.ld earr~t for 7 da::rs and lesser arno~lts for 2 days lonL:er. :Ii th thiB extra va.ter He were able to increase the District creciits 2B~~ a.ild ma!:e a 30 day run endine Aue. 26 lllstead of the announced 12 da:r run, In addition we h3.d enoui11 left to run 15 da~rs in Sept. starting on the hth, We started a fall river Mll1 Oct. 7 which was ended by subzero temperatl~es l~ov. 1. Some of the lando,mers used larce: "lolunes of water during this run while others u.aed none or but veT!'J little deponding upon 1nclividual desires or cirC'Wl1stances. For the season of 1951 we ran Hater in the District Canal a total of 107 days inc1udine the 25 day Fall run, An e..~'trer.lely hea~' rain and hail storm fell over the. ::)ead ::orse Draw area on the east end of the s:-~stef.1 3c~.,t. 6. :latcr from this storm overflolled our ditch ban.:.~s :Lor miles. The banl:s suffered SOMe damage but were not cor.!pletely wa:shod out so l1e \Tere able to still use the ditch. r1'hc flood uaters then con- tinued dOl-m the drall coraplctely flood1:1L: all of the valley floor, uashed out 2 County bridgl;.9: and completoly en~lfed our Costello ~~e:Jcrvoir, l/aBh1nG' Ol!t the dirt spillif~t which we had to repair immedi.1tcl::;r. The Ii\ajor clamac;c.s Here dOlle to the C~Q'jl!3 in the Va.J.lc-i. Parts of this area were hit with a :series of 3 hail storms in AUG, and Sept" almost totally de:stro~"inG the com and bean crops. Last sprinG' we had to clean out 4 different .5cctiona of our ditch v1hero the w1nd had blown in sand frou adjoii11n~ llheat lands. In addition ire cleaned out abO\1t 2~ miles of ditch t.hat had long been a. :restrictiong factor in mal:inr; deliveries to the far ea8t end. This :rear ile arc plan;1inr; to clean several r.d.les morC on the cast end. ';fe hope \l'e ha"le no places to clean where wheat fields bIon in. ~'le try to have. these places stopped bJ" the o1mers of the lane:, but if unsuccessful all \-10 can do is to clean out the damaGe. Due t.o crur good fortl'..ne in se~i;l~ llCltcr from the river ill i~q;'lSt and havin:; llater aVailable agilin early L1 October the resen'oir bottom remained veI7 wet and while ue could haVe do.le SqT,lC wor!~ at tho reservoir on our enlarcr1nG and strCJlG"thening program we can: Get a thi"r4 r.tore '-:or~: for 'the mone'J 'Ie 3penC. if it is done 'ilhen conditions are favorable. If tlley are favor:..ble this year, we \-rill r.18l:e up for last ~~ear as well as do what lie have bt~dgated tor this yoar. The levy this :"ear has been set at ~,1.h5 al":. acre. La.:st ~~ear uent10n was made of the fact that we 11ere b.orel:r sta:rincr even and any !\.U'"thor inflation would ual:e it mandatory that t11C asses9ment.s lTould have to be increased. liatcrials have cone up about 15~~, extra labor 2S:~ and other coats inproportion, The increase in asS~9r.lc..'1t aInount.:!:I to 111";. The Colorado CiG-Thompson project i9 one :,re:u- l1carcr corllplotion, It has been scheduled to ~JC iT~1011:' in operation b:: l~53.. TIlat is' just one noro :,.ear, 'IiI,te only will tell us uhcn it is co.,lplctc, It ca'1 be partiall~~ opera.ted this ~"ear, but not in \l "ray that \fC Ca..'1 ma.:c a.-,:,' ap:lrc.ciablc use of it, The proposed i:arrous Dan <".nd 3.csCl.""'Joir h."3 h:"u '1 r'-'nrlt. r,ll"lT"~ nn'h1 -t...-i +.v +h..