Brett N, As for water rights.. Using the water for surface, recreational rights vs. irrigation rights.. Is this something you've already looked into?
Although I like to think fisheries is my thing, I spend several hours every week devoting time to the water resource boards i'm a part of and we have federal guidelines we have to be familiar with as well as local state regs.
I'm just curious how they allot this for recreational use?
Yeah it's different everywhere you go. We will have to get use permits for sure. We will have to follow all the rules in terms of treatments and isolating the lakes from the waterways. Can't just dig a trench from the river into the lakes. But there isn't a problem with things like power boating, which is allowed on all the reservoirs both upstream and downstream from this location. Also if you go about 8 miles downstream, there is a private lake setup very similar to this. Once the permits are in place, water will not be a problem. I think the biggest problem is gonna be dewatering while we dig. I'm guessing the water table is about 24" below current grade.
