WSP10148

• File Number: 8200.776
• Description: Uncompahgre River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Gunnison
• Water Division: 4
• Date: 7/1/1943
• Author: John R Erickson
• Title: Consumptive Use of Irrigation Water in Lower Uncompahgre Valley
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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INTRODUCTION AND SMIARY

By

C. L. Patterson, Chief Engineer,
Colorado Water Conservation Board

The following report has to do with the Uncompahgre River, a
tributary at Delta of the Gunnison River, which in turn is a trihutary
at Grand Junotion of the Colorado River. It is one of a series of re-
ports. in preparation. oovering field investigations and analytical stud-
ies of the prOduction, use and disposal of the water resources of streams
originating in the State of Colorado, and so far as is Imom. is the first
detailed determination of the conswnptive use of irrigation m.ter in the
Colorado portion of the Colorado River basin.

In this and related reports. attention is direoted to losses of
v<<l.ter by processes of evaporation and transpil"ation. and to segregations
of to\;al losses, in study areaS of substantial size, as betv.een natural
losses and those attributable to irrigation. and with respect to irriga-
tion losses, as between irrigatsd and non-irrigated (but water consuming)
lands. Questions of oost, of the feasibility of irrigation, drainage and
water oonservation projects, and of related eoonomic factors, are inten-
tionally avoided. Instead, the data are intended to aid in determinations
of the total water resources of the State of ColoradO and of the basins
of streams arising in Colorado; of the quantities of m.ter historically
oonsumed; and of the water resources available for and am.iting future de-
velopment and utilization.

The report is in two P8l'ts. both written by Hydraulio Engineer.
John R. Erickson. Part I desoribes the basin of the Uncompahgre River,
outlining its physical characteristics. climate, and development history,
particularly with respect to irrigation and the development and use of
land and water resources. Part II covers the field investigations of
1938-1941, with summaries and analyses of the data, and with conclusions
regarding water losses, and segregations thereof, in the average year of
the study period and under normal water supply and climatio oonditions in
the Lower UIlCompahgre Valley, with oomparisons betv.een oonditions prior
to and after drainage facilities are completed.

'The inve, oigations herein reported I'o8re initiated in 1938 by C.
L. Patterson, Chief Engineer. with ths approval of Clifford iI. Stone,
Director, and tlembers of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. As au.
thorized by Chapter 265, Session Laws of 1937, the field work I'<Il.S under-
taken in cooperation with the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the
Uncompahgre Valley Water Users' ASfD ciation. The investigations I'o8re car-
ried on, for the Colorado .Iater Conservation Board, by Engineers John R.
Erickson and Harold L. Woods, assisted in the field by George F. furee,

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