Plugging a couple of leaks, updating and repairing some of the sophisticated machinery of the Dolores Project system, and studying a proposed historical park were among annual operations matters discussed at the regular Dolores Water Conservancy District board of directors meeting on Oct. 14.

Chuck Lurvey, chief of Operations and Maintenance for the district reported a minimal leak in the Dove Creek Canal immediately upstream of t he Dove Creek Pumping Plant will be treated with bentonite after the water supply is cut off for the irrigation season.

Another seeping section along the Dove Creek Canal upstream of Check Structure 301 will be repaired permanently by installing a length of 36-mill rubber liner.

A leak at the Towaoc-Highline Canal Power Plant, believed to have been at the penstock, was found to be from an adjacent owner’s pipeline, which will be repaired.

In addition to those repairs, Lurvey presented a list of work planned on the project during the 1999-2000 off-irrigation seasonal including installation of a pressure-reducing valve in the Hovenweep pipeline system, which is gravity-fed rather than by pumping plant; connect a blow-off system up to 19-inches in diameter at the new wetlands near Totten Lake; repipe the valve in the Great Cut Pump Plant that serves Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company’s U-Lateral Canal so that it will stay open during a power outage; relocate a water-level gauge at Check Structure 514 on the Towaoc-Highline Canal; install a remote-control flow meter at the Sandstone Pumping Plant; widen the Dove Creek Canal east of U.S. Highway 666; and repaint the trim on the DWCD office in Cortez.

Because of the abundance of precipitation during the mid-summer part of the irrigation season, Lurvey reported, "It was a very slow year, except for lightning-caused outages -- at least 10 to 15 in August."

DWCD general manager John Porter reported that some of the persons who requested domestic water, which would be served by Phase II of the Dove Creek Southeast Domestic Project, adjacent to the south city limits of Dove Creek, actually are residents of the town, so the project is on hold.

Porter also mentioned five or six subdivisions along State Highway 184 between State Highway 145 Narraguinnep Lake are interested in being served non-potable domestic water. He noted that they are not within the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co. system nor along a canal that could serve them. It would require the construction of a small pumping plant and pipeline system in the vicinity of Great Cut Dike, he explained.

FAME FOR FLUME

Saving an old flume, probably the last of hundreds that once existed in the Montezuma Valley Water system, and making it a historical site is still a well-supported goal of the CWCD.

Porter reported that talks are continuing with the City of Cortez and other entities about DWCD’s participating in a trails system throughout the area by developing a roadside park at the site of the old flume over McElmo Creek near the fairgrounds. The Board’s discussion showed that DWCD’s interest is to preserve a symbol of Montezuma Valley’s water and agricultural heritage. The flume is nearing a state of deterioration beyond repair. The east abutment has almost washed out from under the flume, and the water district needs to secure use of the land on which the flume is located, owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation, and establish the roadside park.

The consensus of the board was to ask Lurvey and engineers Steve Harris and Dana Hill to formulate a flume preservation plan in conjunction with a historical roadside park.

At a minimum, Lurvey recommended DWCD help preserve the old structure with liberal applications of linseed oil. In addition, DWCD has salvaged a 30-foot round wooden section of the old siphon across Alkali Canyon, which could be incorporated into the roadside flume park.

Director Larry Deremo discussed the district’s policy on shutting off the water in the canals and notifying irrigators at the end of the season. This year’s sudden dry spell toward the end of the season caused many to be seek more water for their final irrigation action before harvesting, he said. Porter said he and Lurvey will work out a fair policy and a way to communicate with the irrigators. Shutoff is usually in the first week of October.

This year also brought out another problem: mud. Porter discussed the movement of mud in the canal, pumping system and delivery pipes. He said that prior to the construction of sediment settling forebays at each pump plant the problem was worse. However, one irrigator recently complained that one of her center pivots had collapsed this summer because of the accumulation of mud.