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~ ,j' Q\jL 1 The Burlington Canal is perennially deficient in water supply because of the vast area of arable land which it does and can supply. The Narrows is eighty miles downstream and consequently gravitationally unable to meet any Burlington needs. The cost of irrigation water has been such a small part of the total cost of creating a viable agricultural economy in Northeastern Colorado that the construction of long pipelines and the continuing expense of pumping has precluded any pumping to supply farms except from wells located on the land to be irrigated. The irrigation ditches between the Burlington and the Kersey Gauging Station have all been historically fairly well supplied and since Denver has been importing water from the Colorado River for its needs, the return flows from these importations, together with reservoir releases by Denver in times of natural water shortage have so greatly improved the water supply in this stretch of the Platte that any need for water-is largely localized. The Town of Platteville lies in about the center of this segment of the River. From Platteville down, the River is also augmented by return flows from Colorado River importations by the Colorado Big Thompson Project constructed by the United States Department of Interior. These importations tend to strongly stabilize the South Platte River below Platteville because there is sufficient storage in both the Denver system and in the CBT Project to afford supple- mental water when it is needed most, in years of short supply in the Platte River Basin. The calculations of water need which might be met by the Narrows Reservoir commenced before importation of water from the Colorado River had begun to make an appreciable impact. These new imported water supplies, with Denver constantly increasing its importations, make the early Narrows evaluations of water supply and need obsolete. It is thirty-five miles downstream from Kersey to Narrows so that the cost of getting water back upstream by long distance pumping and pipelines makes Narrows in- effective to help this reach of the River. A positive example of the adverse economics of pumping upstream is the operation of the Weldon Valley Ditch which supplies a part of the 19,000 acres of land which would be inundated and removed from agricultural production if the Narrows were built. The cost~for this ditch is $25,000 per year for delivering 30,OOO!acre feet of water to the farmers' land, less than a dollar an acre foot. This has been a stable cost for many years, hardly influenced by inflation, because gravity carr~es. the water from the River to the pi JJ~V'~ - ~ I ,. -4-