TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM TO: WWDC DATE: May 12, 2010 FROM: MWH REFERENCE: Wind-Bighorn Basin Plan SUBJECT: Task 3F – Water Use from Storage The purpose of this technical memorandum is to document water use from storage in the Wind-Bighorn River Basin to support the Wind-Bighorn Basin Plan Update (Basin Plan Update). This information updates and expands on work completed during the previous Basin Plan completed in 2003. Contents Section 1 – Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Section 2 – Reservoirs in Study Area ................................................................................................. 2 Reservoir Descriptions .................................................................................................................... 3 Section 3 – Irrigation Projects in the Study Area ............................................................................... 14 Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program Project .................................................................................. 14 Shoshone Project ......................................................................................................................... 16 Wind River Irrigation Project ......................................................................................................... 16 Section 4 –Water Use from Storage (Evaporation) ........................................................................... 17 Section 5 – Potential Reservoir Sites................................................................................................ 19 Section 6 – Summary ....................................................................................................................... 22 Section 7 – References .................................................................................................................... 23 Appendix A – Existing Reservoir Data ................................................................................................. 25 Appendix B – Framework Water Plan Potential Reservoir Sites ........................................................... 33 Appendix C – WWDC List of Potential Reservoir Sites ........................................................................ 41 Section 1 – Introduction Water storage within the Wind-Bighorn Basin (Basin) was documented in the previous Basin Plan for irrigation, municipal, industrial, recreation, fisheries, and flood control purposes. Total storage capacity, for reservoirs with capacity of at least 500 acre- feet is about 3 million acre- feet. Reported water use from the previous Basin Plan includes consumptive use from reservoirs in the form of evaporation and releases from storage to meet the uses described above. This memorandum updates evaporation and releases from storage values by including data for years since the previous Basin Plan using the hydrologic model study period and by updating evaporation calculations using the same methodology as that from the 2003 Wind-Bighorn Basin Plan Storage technical memorandum (LA 2003). Appendix A includes area-elevation-capacity tables for all reservoirs used in the basin model (see Technical Memorandum 4C – Surface Water Availability). Larger Bureau 1 of Reclamation (Reclamation) managed reservoirs have more detailed tables. Historical end of month reservoir contents, average monthly release rates are also included in Appendix A. Monthly precipitation and evaporation for each reservoir is included in a new Microsoft Access database developed as part of the Basin Plan Update called Wind-Bighorn Hydro. Only summary data are presented in this technical memorandum. See Technical Memorandum 4B – Database and Model Operations for more information on the database. Section 2 – Reservoirs in Study Area There have been no new reservoirs with a capacity over 500 acre-feet permitted within the Basin since the time the previous Wind-Bighorn Basin Plan was completed. Table 1 lists all reservoirs within the Basin that have permitted capacity of more than 500 acre-feet of storage and includes permitted capacities and main reservoir uses. Figure 1 shows the locations of the reservoirs. Table 1. Reservoirs with More Than 500 acre-feet Permitted Storage Capacity Permitted Capacity Sub Basin Reservoir Name Source Use 1 (acre-feet) Clarks Fork Luce Reservoir Paint Creek irr 645.25 Upper Wind Bull Lake Reservoir Bull Lake Creek dom-irr-mfg-pwr 151,951 Pilot Butte Reservoir Big Wind River irr–pwr-mun 34,600 Teapot Reservoir Dry Creek irr 1,578 Little Wind Dinwoody Lakes Dinwoody Creek irr 3,900 Ray Lake Little Wind River irr 6,980 Washakie Reservoir Little Wind River irr 7940 Popo Agie Christina Reservoir Little Popo Agie River mine-mil-irr-sto-dom 3,860 Enterprise Reservoir Roaring Fork irr-dom-sto 1,698 Shoshone Reservoir Shoshone Creek irr-sto 9,740 Worthen Meadows Res. Roaring Fork mun-irr 1,504 Lower Wind Boysen Reservoir Big Horn River dom-irr-mun-pwr-ind 757,851 Cameahwait Reservoir Cottonwood Drain Draw fis-wil-irr-sto-rec 6,683 Debatable Reservoir Willow Creek irr 582 Jack Pot Reservoir Alkali Creek irr-RR 772 Middle Cottonwood Res. Cottonwood Drain Draw irr-sto-fis-wil-rec 612 Prairie (Barquin) Reservoir Dry Muddy Creek irr 578 Shell Reservoir Shell Creek irr 1,949 Upper Bighorn Lake Creek Reservoir Lake Creek irr 1,373 Owl Creek Anchor Reservoir S.F. Owl Creek irr 17,412 Thompson No.1 Reservoir Owl Creek irr 920 Nowood Ten Sleep Reservoir Ten Sleep Creek irr-dom-fire-rec-sto 3,509 Lower Bighorn Adelaide Reservoir Adelaide Creek irr-fis 4,764 Bighorn Lake Big Horn River irr-rec 1,116,000 Leavitt Reservoir Beaver Creek irr 644 Greybull Corral Reservoir Corral Draw rec-sto-irr 1,026.8 Fairview Reservoir Manny Draw irr-dom-sto 1,411 Greybull Valley Reservoir Red Clay Draw irr-rec 33,169 Harrington Reservoir Manny/Wardell Draw irr 1,201.85 Lower Sunshine Reservoir Sunshine Creek pow-sto-ind-irr-dom 58,748 Thomas Reservoir North Rawhide Creek irr 864 Upper Sunshine Reservoir Sunshine Creek irr-ind-sto-dom 52,988 Shoshone Beck Lake S.F. Shoshone River irr-dom 623 Buffalo Bill Reservoir Shoshone River dom-irr-mun-pwr-ind 456,600 Deaver Reservoir Short Draw fish-irr-mun-rec 720 Diamond Creek Dike Reservoir Diamond Creek flo-fis-wil 18,378 Foster No.1 Reservoir Sage Creek irr 573 2 Permitted Capacity Sub Basin Reservoir Name Source Use 1 (acre-feet) Shoshone Newton Reservoir Trail Creek irr 4,525 Perkins & Kinney Reservoir South Sage Creek irr 1202.3 Sage Creek Reservoir Sage Creek irr 2,785 Wiley Reservoir Sage Creek irr 1,020 Notes: 1 dom - domestic, fis - fish propagation, flo - flood control. Ind - industry, irr - irrigation, mfg - manufacturing, mil - milling, mun - municipal, pwr - power, rec - recreation, RR - railroad purposes , sto - stock, , wil - wildlife Reservoir Descriptions Each reservoir with greater than 500 acre-feet of capacity is described below. Diversions served by the reservoir are downstream of the respective reservoir. The following reservoir descriptions were taken from the 2003 Wind-Bighorn Basin Plan Storage technical memorandum (LA 2003). The exceptions are the descriptions for Ray Lake, Washakie Reservoir Dinwoody Lakes, Lower Sunshine Reservoir, Harrington Reservoir, Corral Reservoir and Diamond Creek Dike Reservoir, which were added as part of this updated memorandum. Adelaide Reservoir Adelaide Reservoir is located in Big Horn County near the Sheridan and Johnson county lines. Water for storage is supplied by Adelaide Creek which is tributary to Shell Creek. The reservoir also receives water from Buckley Creek through the Adelaide Supply Ditch. Permitted capacity of the reservoir is 4,764 acre-feet. Water stored in the reservoir is used for fish propagation and irrigation purposes and the permit priority date is August 8, 1910. The water rights under this reservoir are adjudicated. Anchor Reservoir Anchor Reservoir is located in Hot Springs County, west of Thermopolis, near the Fremont County line. The reservoir was constructed by Reclamation in a narrow gorge on the South Fork of Owl Creek, a tributary of Owl Creek which is a tributary of Big Horn River. Water stored in the reservoir is utilized for irrigation and the reservoir has a priority date of December 18, 1933. Construction of Anchor Dam began in 1957 and was completed in 1960. Because of a leakage problem, this reservoir has never achieved its permitted design capacity of 17,412 acre-feet. The adjudicated capacity is 9,252 acre-feet, which is the maximum historical storage contents in Anchor Reservoir. The balance of 8,160 acre-feet remains unadjudicated and the permit has been extended until 2013 to allow the permittee and/or the Owl Creek Irrigation District to fix the leakage problem or pursue other resolutions. Reclamation reports that the reservoir capacity at the top of the conservation pool is 17,228 acre-feet, which includes dead storage, inactive conservation and active conservation. The reservoir also contains surcharge storage space that can store flood water above the spillway of 5,036 acre-feet. The conservation capacity is slightly less than the permitted capacity of the reservoir because the Reclamation capacities reflect constructed and current reservoir conditions, while the permitted capacity reflects conditions at the time the permit was issued. A summary of Reclamation allocations for Anchor Reservoir is presented in Figure 2. As stated above, due to leakage issues, the reservoir does not fill to its maximum capacity.