, 1899-02-06
TORAGERESERV0|RS
BILL INTRODUCED INTO CON
GRESS BY SENATOR f. f.
WARREN.
to River and Harbor Bill
Calls for 500, 900 Appropriation to
Build South Platte, Cloud Peak
and Piney Sites Recommended by
Colonel Chittenden.

Washington, d. c., Feb. 4.-Senator
Warren today introduced an amend
ment to the river and harbor bill pro-
viding for building the South Platte
reservoir in Colorado and the Cloud
Peak and Piney reservoirs in northern
Wyoming as recommended by Colonel
II. NJ. Chittenden, the estimate being
500, 600 for the Wyoming and 5000, 900
for the Colorado reservoir. There is a
fair probability of securing the passage
Of the amendment although success is
not assured.
The Cloud Peak site is a lake site
and lies at the northern base of Cloud
Peak, in Johnson county, Wyoming,
nearly 10000 feet above sea level. 1t is
about one and a half miles long and
half a mile wide. 1t overs l73 acres.
1t is proposed to close the outlet by a
dam thirty-four feet high and to ON
struct outlet works so as to draw off
the water six feet below the present
surface. The available capacity is es-
timated at 296, GOO 900 cubic feet, or
$500 acre feet. The drainage area
above the site is about thirty square
miles and the reservoir will fill every
year. The cost of constructing the res
ervoir is estimated to be $4,000.
Thu Piney site is an open valley site,
formed by a natural park one and a
half miles long and one mile wide. It
is located six miles below the Cloud
Peak lake at an altitude of $500 feet.
1t is proposed to close the outlet Of this
park by a dam tifty-four feet high. This
will give the reservoir an area of 1858
acres and a capacity Of 4S0, 1000, 900 Gu
bic feet, or II, O20 acre feet. The entire
water shed above the dam is sixty-fve
square miles. and the reservoir will
fill each year. The cost of construc-
ton is estimated at s70,O 900. An ex-
haustive report was made to Colonel
Chittenden on these sites by Mr.. Fred
Bond, now chief clerk of the United
States surveyors office at Cheyenne,
and the sites were recommended by Col.
Chittenden as being the most available
and best adapted for testing the plan
of water storage by government aid
in Wyoming.
The South Platte site lies in Jeffer-
son and Douglas counties, Colo, on the
south fork of the South Platte river,
one-fourth of a mile below the mouth
of Goose creek. 1t is about fifty miles
southwest of Denver and twenty miles
from the railroad at the junction of the
two forks of the South Platte. Nine
miles of this distance is along an
abandoned railroad grade, and for the
rest of the distance a good road, with
out heavy grades, can be built to the
site of the dam. The site is remarkable
in affOrding an excellent place for a
high masonry dam. The height of a
dam best suited to the locality is about
two hundred feet above the datum. At
this height the length of the reservoir
will be about five and a half miles, the
area of the water surface in the reser-
voir 776 acres. and the capacity 1921
7O5 .O1O cubic feet. or 67.21l acre-feet.
The area of the watershed above the
site of the dam is 1,645 square miles.
The estimates made of the water flow
OF the South Platte indicate that the
reservoir would fill only two-thirds Of
it's capacity each year. although there
will be some years when it will fill
entirely. The estimated cost of COM
pleting the reservoir is $4,000. In
his report upon the project, Colonel
Chittenden says: in no part of Colo-
RADIO has the water of streams been
more fully used in irrigation than in
the valley of the South Platte II its
several tributaries. The resources of
these streams in their natural condition
have been exhausted, yet there is an
abundance of land in the valley of the
Platte to utilize the flow that now goes
to waste. The project for storing that
percentage of the flow of the south
fork of the South Platte which Is nee
essary to render the whole available is,
therefore, one of actual immediate i'm
portannap