WSP07009

• File Number: 8221.106.J
• Description: Eagle-Piney
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 6/1/1974
• Title: Eagle-Piney/Eagle-Colorado Water Study--Summary Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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INTRODUCTION

Purpose

The Denver Board of Water Commissioners, responding to the need to provide an adequate
water supply for the Denver Metropolitan Area, has a continuing program for integrating its
appropriations in the Eagle. Piney and Colorado River watersheds into the Roberts Tunnel
collection system. The program of incorporating these sources of supply, including the East Gore
and Straight Creek units of the Roberts Tunnel collection system, was initiated by the Denver Water
Department more than five decades ago and continues in orderly anticipation of the growing needs
of the region.

In May 1971, the Denver Board of Water Commissioners authorized the joint venture of
Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas, Inc. and Forrest and Cotton, Inc. to initiate a program
of study to independently analyze and produce more refined plans for the incorporation of the
Board's water resources on the Eagle and Piney Rivers. This program included the correlation.
verification and refinement of previous Department studies. records and other data pertaining
to water availability in the Eagle and Piney River basins. Also included were investigations of
efficient, economical and environmentally sound methods of collecting. storing and conveying the
Board's appropriations from the Eagle and Piney Rivers and their tributaries. Finally. the objective
was to formulate the best means of introducing the water available under the Board's
appropriations into the system through Dillon Reservoir and the Roberts Tunnel.

Background

This study is an integral part of the Board's overall long-range plan to provide an adequate
and reliable water supply and distribution system for the Denver Metropolitan Area. This plan
began to take shape during the early years of the Board's existence, with recognition of the need
for importation of water from the Colorado River watersheds to supply adequately the needs of
the City of Denver. The Board, beginning in 1921. appropriated waters from the Fraser River.
Williams Fork River and Blue River basins. Construction of the Fraser River collection system
began in the early 1930's and the first water from that system was delivered in 1936.
Construction of the Williams Fork system began in the late 1930's and the first water from that
system was delivered in 1940.

In 1941, the Board. jointly with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. undertook an investigation
of diverting and transporting water available from the Blue River watershed by what is now known
as the Roberts Tunnel collection system. Later, through its own efforts, the Board continued that
work. As a result, the Board initiated construction of the Harold D. Roberts Tunnel under the
Continental Divide in 1946. The Blue River system. including Dillon Dam and Reservoir and
Roberts Tunnel. was completed in 1963 with the first water made available to the Denver
Metropolitan Area in 1964.

The Eagle-Piney, East Gore and Straight Creek units are parts of the Roberts Tunnel
collection system. The suggested integration of the Eagle-Piney unit and the Eagle-Colorado
configuration into the existing Roberts Tunnel collection system is reported upon in this Summary.
Details of the evaluations performed are presented in the various other associated reports.

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