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." '<:"" -- In ,- - " Most of the study area depends on irrigation for successful crop production because rainfall during the growing season is infrequent and irregular. Precipitation in the area averages approximately nine inches or less during the growing season. Because streamflows consist mostly of snowmelt from the mountains, flows are inadequate during the late summer when snowmelt has diminished and irrigation requirements are greatest. BACKGROUND Investigations by the USSR for the San Miguel Project were first begun in the 1950's and published in a 1966 Feasibility Report and in a 1982 Planning Report. The San Miguel Project was one of the projects authorized for construction in the Colorado River Basin Project Act of September 30, 1968 (Public Law 90-537). The 1982 report concluded, however, that a San Miguel Project, as proposed at that time, was not economically feasible. Most of the alternatives studied by the USBR involved mainstem reservoirs on the San Miguel River to provide both irrigation and M & I water supplies. It was the desire of the study participants and the CWCB to consider smaller, less expensive project configurations which did not require mainstem reservoirs. A preliminary reconnaissance study was completed in 1985 under the sponsorship of the CWCB, the SMWCD and the Southwest Water Conservation District. This study, referred to as the 1985 Rescoping Study, recommended a program of structural improvements and expansions to the three major irrigation systems in the study area at an estimated cost of $16.8 million, In January 1985, the SMWCD made application to the CWCB for partial funding for the project. The CWCB recommended authorization of the project to the Colorado General Assembly which authorized it in HB 1042 of the 1985 session. HB 1042 required, however, that the CWCB must determine that the San Miguel Project is technically and financially feasible before loaning any 3