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<br />40 <br /> <br />for water storage to make water available on a sustained yield basis. <br />Toward this objective, much storage has been developed. <br />The alluvial aquifer of the South Platte extends from around <br />Henderson downstream to the state line (Figure 2-4). The width of the <br />aquifer varies from 1 mile to more than 10 miles. Its widest section is <br />. upstream from Fort Morgan where Kiowa and Bijou Creeks discharge into <br />the South Platte River. Storage in the aquifer is estimated as about 8 <br />mill ion acre-feet. The saturated thickness of the aqui fer ranges from <br />50 to 240 feet. Its transmissivity ranges from 100,000 to 1,200,000 <br />gallons per day per foot. Wells in the aquifer are estimated to yield <br />an average of 9SO gallons per minute (3); <br />Groundwater development began in about 1900. This development <br />occurred in part because most of the reliable direct-flow surface water <br />had been appropriated by that time. Remaining unapproprfa.ted water was <br />contained in the peaks, of flood runoff during early spring. Wells were <br />constructed for a supplemental supply ~uring dry years of low surface <br />runoff. While a few wells were drilled to supply dry lands with irriga- <br />tionwater, most of the wells furnished' supplemental water to existing <br />irrigated lands. By 1970, 3,000 large irrigation wells had been con- <br />structed in the basin and that number was up to 5,000 in 1980. A 1970 <br />estimate of pumping withdrawals for ttle period 1947-1970 is 420,000 <br />acre-feet annually. The estimated withdrawal for 1980 alone was 1 mil- <br />lion acre-feet. <br /> <br />4.3 Exchanges of Water <br />Water users have been innovative in finding water management stra- <br />tegies which have "stretched" the limited water supply. One of these is <br />