WSP08880

• File Number: 8277.500.10
• Description: Price and San Rafael Basin Unit - Colorado River Water Quality Improvement Program
• State: UT
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 3/1/1986
• Title: Evaluation of the Incremental Cost Effectiveness of Building a Combined Pressurized Sprinkler Irrigation System to Reduce Salt Loading to the Colorado River
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Summary

Introduction

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_)_._ .::cd,", -:: ~~~~:,:.:_:a\12::.i,):i. a:l': t'le Soi~ :cns~--:'Jd::ion Service have independently

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stud ied the Price and San Rafael River Basins for several years to develop

plans for r~ducing sal t load ing from the two river basins. The Price and San

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.~,"J.Ed~~ Riv~r Basi:ls a:"2 loca~ed i;] east-central Utah, 120 miles southeast of

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Sal: Lake ::;ity, Utah, encompassing Carbon and Emery Counties (Figure 1).

This report presents a brief overview of the independent activities of both

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Reclamation and the SCS.

This includes sal :-water budgets, plan formulation

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ac~ivi~ies, and the potential for building a combined pressurized sprinkler

irrigation system for the Cottonwood Creek and Ferron Creek areas of the San

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Rafael River Basin.

If there appears to be potential in these areas for

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implementing a combined plan the study would be expanded to include the Price

River Basin.

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Sal t Load ing

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The Bureau of Reclamation developed a salt loading factor based upon field

verification activities.

These activities indicated that

approximately 60

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percent of the salt loading comes from the irrigated sector.

Of this amount

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the major contributor to salt loading was water lost to deep percolation. On

a basin wide average eacb acre-foot of water that can be prevented from

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entering the ground water system in the agricultural area, reduces salt

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loading to the Colorado River by 2.4 tons per year.

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