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O~'1551 WATERSHED PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES This section identifies the types of problems which exist in the watershed. The problem areas are identified and the extent of the problems within-each area are quantified. Potential opportunities to improve the quality of life and enhance environmental values are also discussed. The problems within the watershed include: water quality, water quantity, and irrigation induced erosion. Additional problems include rural water quality and fish and wildlife habitat. Water Qualitv There is a concem that the local geology and current land use practices are adversely affecting the water quality of the surface drainage and groundwater. Salts have long been known to be a water quality problem in the basin; however, during the last several years, higher levels of nutrients, trace elements, and heavy metals in irrigation drainages, wells, and the Arkansas River have been detected. This has a detrimental effect on human health, fish and wildlife, and agricultural uses. The Colorado Non- Point Assessment Report identified sediment and salinity as well as other water quality problems in the reach of the Arkansas River which is impacted by the project. Irrigation of high fertilizer use crops predominate the land use in the watershed. Irrigation waters percolate through the soils and flow down gradient through unconsolidated gravels into the groundwater. This is in part due to the unavailability of an economical labor force to carry out irrigation as it was done in the early 1950s. In 1954 Otero county had a farm labor force of 2,643 which included family members and hired labor. According to the 1964 United States Census of Agriculture report, in 1959 Otero county, had 427 hired farm laborers that worked more than 150 days or more. The 1992 United States Census of Agriculture report says that the same county only employed 222 farm laborers for more than 150 days in 1992. Data was gathered on nitrates in groundwater and surface water from the Water Quality Control Division (WQCD), the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Storet Data, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A number of wells in the area are high in nitrates. From various data sources 20 wells in the watershed were found to exceed the State and EPA standards (10 pm); this is approximately 1/3 of the wells tested. The Arkansas River water approaches the state nitrate level standard at times. The sources of the nitrates is a combination of naturally occurring and applied. The higher nitrate concentrations in wells generally occur in the lower portions of the irrigated watershed closest to the river. The nitrate concentration for the wells range from .25 parts per million to 39 parts par million. Approximately 500 wells are in the 18