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2280 2.0 GREAT PLAINS RESERVOIR SYSTEM 2.1 Physical system The Great Plains Reservoir system is comprised of four reservoirs located in Kiowa county near Eads and adjacent to Prowers county. Water storage rights in the Great Plains Reservoirs are owned by the Amity Mutual Irrigation company. Arkansas River waters which ultimately reach the Great Plains Reservoirs are diverted into the Fort Lyon Canal headgate located upstream of La Junta, thence traveling 31 miles to the Kicking Bird Canal and another 31 miles to the reservoirs (Figure 1-1). The Amity Mutual Irrigation company system is one of the most extensive irrigation systems in the State of Colorado. The physical system is comprised of three parts: (1) Great Plains Reservoir system and water storage rights, (2) Amity Canal and direct flow diversion rights, and (3) John Martin Reservoir storage rights. The main Amity Canal takes off the Arkansas River just downstream of John Martin Reservoir. Irrigation releases from the Great Plains Reservoirs ultimately are delivered into the Amity canal near the Sand Creek crossing. Amity has recently established storage rights up to 50,000 AF in the federally- owned John Martin Reservoir located on the mainstream Arkansas River downstream of Las Animas. ~ . The four reservoirs of the Great Plains system (Figure 2-1) form a complex having many alternate flow sequences. The cross-sectional view of Figure 2-2 shows the relative position of the reservoirs. Kicking Bird canal inflows have typically been routed to Queen Reservoir through the Satanta Canal. Queen Reservoir is the lowest of the reservoirs and releases from Queen may be delivered to the Fort Lyon Canal through the Pawnee Canal, or to the Amity Canal through the Comanche Canal. Water delivered through the Kicking Bird Canal can be delivered directly to Nee Sopah, thence to the Nee Gronda or Nee Noshe Reservoirs. Nee Gronda and or Nee Sopah may be bypassed using the Lone Wolf Canal to deliver water directly to Nee Noshe Reservoir. Releases from Nee Noshe Reservoir go to the Comanche Canal for delivery to the Amity Canal. It has been suggested that a southern outlet could be developed from the Nee Gronda Reservoir, thereby increasing its active storage volume and making possible releases to the Fort Lyon Canal. This is physically possible and preliminary computations indicate that Nee Gronda's dead storage volume could be halved 4