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<br />2311 <br /> <br />of one-half to one i.I1ch in volume is required to produce runoff from <br />the basin. Precipitation of lesser amounts is used by vegetation <br />or absorbed by the sandy channel to eventually recharge the under- <br />ground storage. Providing surface storage for these latter flows <br />would not materially add to their beneficial use within the basin. <br /> <br />'. <br /> <br />Some potential is present \dthin the B1Jou basin for the storage <br />of excess precipitation runoff. The estimated average annual surface <br />outflow from the basin is bet\leen 3,500 and 4,000 acre-feet. A <br />dam near Hoyt, located 24 miles above the mouth, could physically <br />capture a large part of this flow. Impoundment of flood flows over <br />a period of years would necessitate providing space for a large <br />quantity of sediment. Preliminary studies indicate that the <br />sediment flow above the damsite is about 500 acre-feet :per year <br />or 25,000 acre-feet in 50 years. Construction of a reservoir \r1th <br />36,000 acre-feet of regulated capacity, including 25,000 acre- <br />feet of space for sediment, and 11,000 acre-feet for storage of <br />flood flows, would provide an average of about 3,000 acre-feet <br />of additional vater :per year for use within the Bijou basin if <br />not required for prior rights on the main stem. Part of the 3,000 <br />acre-feet would recharge the ground water aquifer directly from <br />seepage losses from the reservoir. Releases from storage of the <br />remaining quantity would be at rates small enough to :permit absorption <br />by the downstream channel reaches. <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />The sediment control provided by the Hoyt Reservoir would not be <br />adequate to prevent serious contributions of sediment by Bijou <br />Creek to the South Platte River. <br /> <br />COMPARATIVE ENGINEERING DATA <br /> <br />Costs of Bijou Creek Control <br /> <br />General <br /> <br />Bijou Creek :floods and sediment could. be controlled by i-11ggins <br />Reservoir, southeast of Wiggins, Colorado, or diverted by dikes and <br />channel into Narrows Reservoir as proposed in the 1951 report. <br /> <br />The Hoyt Reservoir, south of Hoyt, Colorado, has been suggested for <br />the purpose of ground water recharge. Such use may :I.n~rfere 'With <br />prior rights d01olOstream. Since it would offer only :partial flood <br />and sediment control it is not the equal of channelization into <br />Narrows Reservoir or Higgins Reservoir. <br /> <br />,. <br /> <br />6 <br />