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<br />~ <br />~ <br />~ <br />~ <br /> <br />.. <br />I <br /> <br />I. RYDROSALINITY MONITORING AND EVALOATION <br /> <br />1. settinq <br /> <br />a. Irrigation Delivery Systems: The Grand Valley area obtains <br />water for irrigation through the different canal systems located in <br />the Valley (Appendix G). The irrigation monitoring sites. were <br />established in various locations and under different canal systems. <br />Irrigation water from the Colorado River is delivered to the farm <br />through both private and Federal canal systems. The private . <br />systems include the Grand Valley Irrigation Company, palisade. . <br />Irrigation District, Mesa County Irrigation District, Orchard Mesa <br />Irrigation District and.Redlands Water and Power Company. The <br />Federal system includes the Grand Valley Water Users Association <br />(Government Highline Canal). Each private canal system delivers <br />water to a large number of .laterals which are independently owned <br />and operated. The laterals under Government Highline Canal are <br />mostly under Federal control. Irrigation water from .the various <br />laterals is delivered to individual fields through open ditches, <br />lined or unlined and also by underground pipeline. "Water delivered <br />to the field is distributed to the field through different <br />irrigation systems. <br /> <br />The irrigation systems commonly used by farmers include: earth <br />ditch to siphon tubes, concrete ditch to gated pipe, ported <br />concrete ditch, underground pipeline to gated pipe as well as <br />various kinds of sprinkler systems. These may be drip, microspray, lj~ <br />.soUd set sprinkler or sideroll sprinkler. . ..../ <br /> <br />-:.....) <br />(/0r1r <br />1 <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />b. Monitoring site Description <br /> <br />Overview: The initial goal was to monitor 35 sites annually as <br />outlined in the 1983 Grand .Valley Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.i <br />Since then, it has been decided that at least 16 active monitoring <br />sites would be maintained each year. A total of 35 'sites could be <br />monitored over the life of the M&E Program by maintaining over 12 <br />operating sites each year and rotating the equipment to new fields <br />after three to five years of irrigation monitoring. Equipment cost <br />for a monitoring site with one outlet and an inlet runs from $5,000 <br />to $6,000. This is a one-time capital cost and not a repeating <br />annual cost. Annual expenditures include nominal operation and <br />maintenance costs. <br /> <br />On-farm irrigation monitoring started in 1984 with the installation <br />of 1.2 monitoring sites. Since .then a minimum of 16 sites have been '1 <br />maintained each year. . Table 1 provides information on th~status <br />of various sites established since 1985 and Appendix H provides <br />Annual SU1II1IIary data from 1986 through 1992. Of the 16 original <br />sites installed in 1985, three were still being monitored through <br />1993 (Table 1). The remaining 12 sites have been dropped because <br />of various problems with maintenance and operations. <br />'- ,.." <br />.~-. .:; <br />.'-..,. <br /> <br />6 <br />