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<br />0:2229 <br /> <br />Moore and Wood - 5 <br />Oral - GSA <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The irrigation economy of the Arkansas Valley was <br /> <br />originally developed with surface water, but storage <br /> <br />facilities are small. The amount of surface water available <br /> <br />depends primarily on snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains, as <br /> <br />the mean annual precipitation east of Pueblo is only about <br /> <br />lO inches. Irrigation water, therefore, is most plentiful <br /> <br />from spring until early summer. The surface-water supply <br /> <br />in middle and late summer, when crops are maturing and <br /> <br />consumptive use is greatest, is often inadequate or lacking. <br /> <br />The use of the ground-water reservoir alleviates this <br /> <br />It inadequacy, and many large-capacity wells have been installed <br /> <br />in the Arkansas Valley to supplement the surface-water <br /> <br />supply. About 1,500 large capacity-irrigation wells were <br /> <br />pumped in the Arkansas Valley in 1964. Most of the wells <br /> <br />have been drilled since World War II, and their number <br /> <br />has more than doubled in the past lO years. ' The withdrawal <br /> <br />of ground water increased from about 90,000 acre-feet in <br /> <br />1954 to about 230,000 acre-feet in 1964. <br /> <br />It <br />