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<br />Ou0413 <br /> <br />-24- <br /> <br />; <br /> <br />and to the above estimated depletions of potential irri r;ntion projects <br />listed in the Report, Colorado says tha.t an allowance might properly be <br />made for the depletions of additional irrignble, ara.ble and pasture lands <br />that may be expected to be irrigated, which additional depletions are es- <br />timated by Colorado engineers at 318,000 acre feet annually in Colorado, <br />and 205,000 acre feet annually in other Upper Basin States. or a total of <br />523,000 acre feet amually in the Upper Basin. The severnl factors in- <br />volved in said estima.tion, foreca.st, or assumption, may be outlined as <br />followsl <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />(a) Irrigable lilnds. According to the 1940 U. S. Census, the <br />irriga.ble lands under existLng irriga.tion enterprises whioh the con- <br />structed works were capable of supplying with water exoeeded the c.creage <br />irrigated by 343,779 acres in the Upper Basin. of which 205.258 acres <br />were in Colorndo. Some of such irrigable lands are to be served by the <br />potential projeots listed in theRe port. bul; the remaining irrigable <br />lands may in time and probably will in part be irrigated through activ- <br />ities and agencies other than the Bureau of Reclamation. <br /> <br />(b) Arable Lands. According to land classification surveys <br />of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Class 1 end 2 arable lands in vrestern <br />Colorado aggregate 706,480 acres, - a surveyed and classified acreage <br />which Colorado says is incomplete. Of the said acreage, 471,330 acres <br />are to be irrigated by the potential projects listed in the Report. Of <br />the remaining 235,150 acres (or more) of arable land known to be suit- <br />able for reclamation by irri~tion. a fraction thereof may be included <br />in the previously mentioned (a) irrigable lands; another part may be des- <br />tined to remain unirriga.ted; but the balance of the arable Innds may, and <br />in time probably will. be irrigated by projects other than those listed <br />in the Report, even though physioal oonditions and the scattered locations <br />of such lands require that reclamation be accanplished by numerous devel- <br />opments of such small individual magnitude that they fail to interest the <br />Bureau of Reclamation. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />(c) Pasture Lands. The need for and possibilities of pasture <br />irrigation are ignored in the Report. According to the 1940 U. S. Cen- <br />sus there v.ore 131,923 acres of irrigated pasture in v.estern Colorado, <br />in addition to meadowlands from whioh native hay orops v.ere harvested. <br />Livestock production is one of the most important of the wealth produc- <br />ing industries in Colorado, and in connection therewith there is a grow- <br />ing need for additional irrignted pasture lends. Livestook interests in <br />Gunnison County claim both the need and the opportunity for an addition- <br />al 220,000 aores of irrigated pasture in that county alone, and other <br />livestock producing areas in western Colorado have similar plens or hopes <br />for inoreasing the acreage of irrigated pastures. Colorado says that <br />the Bureau of Reclamation should consider the opportunities for the re- <br />clamation of pasture lands by irrigation, end that alloWllIlces for the <br />probable ultimate depletions of such lands should appear in the Report, <br />together with those of the previously mentioned irrigable am arable <br />lands developed for harvested crops. <br /> <br />r <br />