WSP04033

• File Number: 8220.112.D
• Description: Dallas Creek Participating Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Gunnison
• Water Division: 4
• Date: 3/10/1966
• Author: USDOI-BOR
• Title: Report on the Dallas Creek Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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anticipated for them in the years ahead. The already important recrea-
tion attractions of the area will soon be greatly increased with com-
pletion of the Curecanti Unit of the Colorado River Storage Project on
the Gunnison River, of which the Uncompahgre is a tributary. Local
industrial development also is expected to be stimulated by hydroelec-
tric power from the powerp1ants at the Curecanti Unit and other units
of the storage project, and municipal growth in the project area will
result from the new power operations center at Montrose. Development
of the authorized Fruitland Mesa and Bostwick Park projects and of the
Dallas Creek Project itself, if authorized for construction, would
increase agriculture and would improve recreation and fish and wildlife
attractions, further stimulating growth of the general area.

Control of f100df10ws of the Uncompahgre River is needed to prevent
the inundation of farmlands and frequent channel changes that now
occur during the spring snowmelt period and during heavy rainstorms
which usually oceur in the late summer.

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Local residents, western slope interests in Colorado, and State
officials have long urged the development of the Dallas Creek Project
as a means of utilizing undeveloped land and water resources in the
Uncompahgre River Basin. Project sponsorship was the primary purpose
for organization of the Tri-County Water Conservancy District in
September 1957 by the local residents. The district has actively
supported the project investigations and is obtaining water rights
needed for the development. The Colorado Water Conservation Board
has made contributions toward the completion of project investigation
work and has helped coordinate aetivities of the various agencies
engaged in the investigations. About 90 percent of the full-time
farmers in the project area were contacted by representatives of the
Bureau of Reclamation in 1962 and 1963 in the course of a farm manage-
ment survey required in project analyses. Almost without exception
these farmers expressed support of the project and a desire to sub-
scribe for additional water. Unqualified support was also expressed
in public meetings held in the area for the purpose of diseussing the
project plan.

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Under the proposed plan of development, irrigation water supplies would
be increased by an average of 60,300 acre-feet annually for supplemental
service to 8,720 acres of presently irrigated land now having inadequate
supplies, and for full serviee to 14,900 acres of land not now irrigated.
The project would also develop an average of 15,000 acre-feet annually
of municipal and industrial water supply to provide for the present
needs of the project area and anticipated future needs.

The project plan provides for storage capacity in three upstream reser-
voirs. The 146,500-acre-foot Ridgway Reservoir on the Uncompahgre

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