FLOOD10516

• County: Delta
• Basin: Gunnison
• Title: North Fork Water Conservancy District Water Management Plan
• Date: 7/1/2001
• Prepared For: Delta County
• Prepared By: Delta Soil Conservation District
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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... CHAPTEfi 2. WATER RESOURCE INVENTORY
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FIGURE 2-5 I
Fire Mountain Canal Diversions: 1988-1998
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Year

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IIiJDirect Flow IIJStqrage Flow I

Source: CDWR, 2000

Fann Delivery

Water delivered to farms equals water diverted at the headgate less delivery losses. Monthly estimates
of water delivered to farms are displayed in Table 2-4 Table 2-5 for the average and drought scenarios,
respectively_ On average, approximately 4.63 acre-feet per acre are delivered to farms. For the drought
year, approximately 3.63 acre-feet per acre were delivered to farms.

Crop Requirements

Originally, USBOR estimated the Fire Mountain Canal irrigated 8,270 acres (USBOR 1957). For this
report, current irrigated acres were obtained from the Colorado Department of Water Resources (CDWR
2000b). The 1993 data indicated that irrigated lands had been reduced to 8259 acres. Crop distributions
included 6,964.8 acres in alfalfa or grass hay and pasture (84%), 319.8 acres in silage and grains (4%),
and 974.3 acres in orchards (12%).

Consumptive use or crop water requirement was calculated by the Blaney-Criddle method using Paonia
climate data shown in Table 1-1 (Dalton 2000). Results are presented in Table 2-7. Overall, an average
water requirement of 2.2 acre-foot per acre was estimated for the average scenario; 2.5-acre-foot per
acre for the drought scenario.

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