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4 Consumptive Uses and Losses <br />is <br />Irrigation consumptive use accounts for about 55 percent of the water use in the Upper Main <br />Stem reporting area exclusive of any share of main stem evaporation. In an average year <br />approximately 540,000 acres of land are irrigated. Approximately, 28 percent of the water <br />consumptively used is exported to serve agricultural and municipal needs on the Eastern <br />slope of the Continental Divide in Colorado. <br />San Juan - Colorado (Colorado -New Mexico - Utah - Arizona) <br />The San Juan reporting area is drained by the Colorado River and its tributaries below <br />the mouth of the Green River and above Lee Ferry, Arizona. The largest of the tributary <br />streams is the San Juan River which heads on the western slope of the Continental Divide in <br />southwestern Colorado. Principal tributaries of the San Juan River are the Navajo, Piedra, <br />Los Pinos, Animas, and La Plata Rivers. The other main tributaries in <br />the basin are the Dirty Devil, Escalante, and Paria Rivers, which drain a portion of the <br />Eastern slope of the Wasatch Plateau in Utah. The reporting area includes about 38,600 <br />square miles in portions of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. <br />The largest towns are Durango and Cortez in Colorado, Monticello and Blanding in Utah, <br />Farmington in New Mexico, and Page in Arizona. <br />Mining and agriculture form the economic base for the San Juan - Colorado reporting area. <br />The agricultural development is similar to that of the Upper Main Stem where most of the <br />40 cropland is devoted to livestock feeds except for the production of diversified market crops <br />on lands with favorable air drainage. The main market crops are fruit, vegetables, and dry <br />beans. Oil, natural gas, and coal are the most important minerals produced. Thermal <br />electric power production is increasingly important to the economy of the area. <br />Irrigation accounts for the largest use of water, about 85 percent of the San Juan reporting <br />area use, exclusive of any share of main stem evaporation. About 310,000 acres of land <br />are irrigated in an average year. <br />Lower Colorado River Basin <br />Main Stem Below Lee Ferry, Arizona - California- Nevada <br />The Colorado River has a length of more than 700 miles and a drainage area of 132,300 <br />square miles within the Lower Colorado River System in the United States. The dividing <br />point between the Upper and Lower Basin is Lee Ferry. Diversions are made at Lake Mead <br />to the rapidly expanding North Las Vegas -Las Vegas- Henderson - Boulder City <br />area for municipal and industrial purposes. The river below Lake Mead courses through <br />canyons and broad alluvial valleys interspersed with bordering groups of mountains. Lakes <br />Mohave and Havasu provide flood control and regulatory storage below Lake Mead. Lake <br />Mohave reregulates Hoover Dam releases for power production and for deliveries to <br />mexico. Lake Havasu also provides a forebay for pumped diversions to the Central Arizona <br />Project (CAP) in Arizona and export to the Metropolitan Water District <br />of Southern California. <br />