Huerfano County Water Conservancy District Receives Rural Development Grant to Rehab Aging Water Infrastructure

Huerfano County Water Conservancy District has been selected for a Congressionally Directed Spending grant of $1.576-million to rehabilitate its Sheep Mountain Augmentation Facility (SMAF) reservoir near Gardner. The grant will be administered by USDA Rural Development, which publicly confirmed obligation of the funds at a ceremony June 24 at the Huerfano County Courthouse in Walsenburg.

The SMAF reservoir was completed in 2021 and stores augmentation water under the Huerfano Basin Regional Augmentation Plan (HBRAP), adjudicated in Water Court case 13CW3062. It was established at the urging of Colorado Division of Water Resources to provide replacement/augmentation water to the river so senior water rights holders are not injured when small water users with only “junior” rights make use of the water. Those junior users, the current Plan participants, include Town of Gardner and Gardner School, Paradise Acres Homeowners, CO-61 Water Association, Huerfano County Road & Bridge, and a number of commercial businesses, private ranches, livestock, wildlife, and recreational users.

SMAF is used to store water until it is released to augment the junior uses, including: municipal; irrigation; stock watering; fire protection and suppression; domestic; commercial; industrial; recreational; fish and wildlife preservation and propagation; support and creation of wetlands.

The SMAF reservoir’s liner is reinforced polypropylene placed on a heavy geotextile with soil cover on slopes, plus another geotextile layer over the soil. Atop this “liner system,” ballast – cobble, gravel, coarse sand – was added to protect from punctures and erosion. Unfortunately, water fluctuations, high winds and unanticipated wave runup have caused the ballast to erode, especially on the east slope. Bare spots on the liner now weaken the structural integrity of SMAF.

The eroded ballast material is considered an aging infrastructure concern. Leaving the liner exposed will result in additional damage to the geomembrane, water loss through seepage and diminishing storage capacity. In light of the continuing regional drought, storage has been a major theme in local, regional and State water planning.

The Rural Development funding – which will be supplemented by a $114,800 Colorado Water Conservation Board WSRF grant – will enable a repair project to ensure long-term stability and functionality of SMAF using superior ballast. The project will include localized repair of damaged geotextile; installation of a layer of angular riprap on reservoir slopes; addition of rock bedding.