WSP11823

• File Number: 8281.400
• Description: Colorado River Studies and Investigations -- Colorado River Depletion Projections
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 3/25/1955
• Title: Report on Depletion of Surface Water Supplied of Colorado West of Continental Divide
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

DEPLETION OF SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES

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San Juan River resulting from development of these four projects,
would be as follows:

Total area of
new land or
equivalent

Resulting de~
pletion of
streamflow

Maximum subsidy per acre of new land or equivalent:
$200_'__._.__..___.__.______.__.__._.._.__________.__._.._._.__._____
$400__________.__.____.._.__._.__.__._____._.__.__._..___..____.__.__
$600.....__.._.____..____..__.___.__._.._____..__._.._______...._._._
$800_ _ ~____nn___ .n____ _. _ ___ _____ _____ .___ _ .__n _____ _ __ ___. . _____
$l,OOOj..._~_.____.~__________________________________________________

Acre-.feetper
year
20, 000,
105, 000.
140,000
154,000
161,,000;

Acre8
14,000
75, 000
100,000
110, 000
115, 000

No other projects are possible in the Dolores River Basin and
adjacen,t portions of the San Juan Basin because those considered
would require the use of substantially all of the flow of Dolores River
and the. tributaries of Sitn Juan River which enter it below Shiprock.
Due to the limitations of article XIV of the upper Colorado River
Basin compact, there is little room for increasing the irrigated area
elsewhere in San Juan Basin except for the potential Animas-La Plata
project. . Studies now being carried on by the Bureau of Reclamation
relative to the use of Animas River have not been completed but the
essential'data have been made available. The lands to be served in
Colorad~ would be limited to about 62,000 acres and the estimated
resulting:depletion would be 87,000 acre-feet per year. Other land in
New Me~ico could be included. The project would involve at least
one storage reservoir and an expensive canal from Animas River into
La Plata. River Basin, so that the costs of construction would be large.
It is a.1mqst certain that the project would be infeasible if lands in
New Me~ico be .not included and its feasibility is deemed doubtful
even in such event.
At least)t may reasonably be assumed that depletions of the flow of
San Juan River and Dolores River could not be 50 percent greater
than the depletions given in the foregoing table in relation to subsidies
of different magnitudes.

Projects in :Green River Basin
.- No recent investigations have been made by the Bureau of Rec-
lamation to. determine the amount of land which might be included in
irrigation projects in Green River Basin in northwestern Colorado.
This area was covered, however, in the investigations leading up to
the report s\lbmitted in 1946 by the Commissioner of Reclamation to
the Secretary of the Interior. The potential projects were also out-
lined generally on the land classification maps of the Preston Survey
and most of them were visited during the course of our investigation.
We believe that there are sufficient data to determine within reason-.
able limits the ext,ent to which the flow of Yampa River, White River,.
and other tributaries to Green River may thereby be depleted.
The total ,area of irrigable land in Colorado within the drainage
basins of Yampa River, White River, and other tributaries of Green
River is estimated to be less than 700,000 acres, of which two-thirds
is class 4 land suitable only for pasture. Three-fourths of the total
IS within the drainage basin of Yampa River; 48 percent of this is in
the basin of Little Snake River and about 25 percent is on high benches.

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