FLOOD10335

• County: Mesa
• Stream Name: Indian Wash
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Title: Watershed Work Plan - Indian Wash Watershed, Mesa County, CO
• Date: 9/1/1961
• Prepared By: Upper Grand Valley Soil Conservation District
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

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In the area downstream from the High Line Canal, the channel of
Indian Wash is camparati vely stable for the average annual peak flow.
Little or no degrading of the channel is taking place, mainly because
of the presence of culverts and concrete bridge sills. In the upper
and lower reaches through this area, the channel is underlain by coarse
gravel layers, which tend to resist 'degradation. Minor amounts of bank
cutting occur locally along the channel during the larger flood flows.

Problems Relating to Water Management

There has been no expression of interest in obtaining water
storage facilities within the watershed area for irrigation, municipal,
or industrial uses or for recreation and wildlife purposes. The Bureau
of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
studied the '\olatershed and made the following observation in a report
dated January 13, 1960: "Based on our knowledge of the area
and proposed developments, we believe that fish and wildlife resources
will not be significantly affected. The project offers no appreciable
opportunities for fisheries development, or for wildlife improvement."

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The irrigated lands .in the watershed are served by the High Line
Canal, the Grand Valley Canal, the Mesa County Canal, and the Stub
Ditch. These canals, together with a fairly extensive system of open
drainage ditches, provide a good level of irrigation water management
and high crop yields. With the increasing urbanization of the
irrigated cropland, the principal water management need is for additional
land treatment measures, similar to those nOil being applied.

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EXISTING OR PROPOSED WORKS OF IMPROVEMENT

Indian Wash Watershed lies within the Upper Grand Valley Soil
Conservation District. The District and its cooperators are
actively carrying out a soil and moisture conservation program with
technical assistance furnished by the Soil Conservation Service.
Basic conservation plans have been prepared on 17 operating units
containing approximately 50 percent of the irrigated cropland within
the. watershed. The public rangeland constituting the major portion
of the upper watershed area is under the jurisdiction of the U. S.
Bureau of Land Management and as such has a continuing program of soil
and moisture conservation.

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The City of Grand Junction, the Colorado Department of Highways,
Mesa County, and the Grand Junction Drainage District have been working
jointly to improve the channel of Indian Wash downstream fram the Grand
Valley Canal in order to immediately reduce the added flood hazard
resulting fram channel constrictions which were the principal points
of overbank flow during the flood of June 6, 1958. Between the Grand
Valley Canal and the railroad, there were several constrictions where
the channel had less capacity than the maximum capacity (1,000 cubic
feet per second) of the culvert passing under the railroad classification
yard.