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<br />Livestock Water Use <br /> <br />Livestock water use consists of water used ln the commercial ra1s1ng of <br />animals. For this study, only the raising of cattle, hogs, and sheep was <br />considered. Data were compiled for this category for water-source type, <br />water-supply method (assumed to be entirely self supplied), and <br />water-disposition type. <br /> <br />Withdrawals were estimated based on the number of animals reported for <br />each county by the Colorado Department of Agriculture (Colorado Agricultural <br />Statistics Service, 1986). Animals were assumed to be homogeneously <br />distributed within a county unless geographic or other information indicated <br />otherwise. Consumptive-water-use estimates for the various types of animals <br />were obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1975) and were as <br />follows: <br /> <br /> <br />Cattle <br />Sheep <br />Hogs <br /> <br />10 gallons per head per day <br />2 gallons per head per day <br />3 gallons per head per day <br /> <br />Water-source type was estimated based on water-source type available within a <br />county-cataloging unit, using irrigation-water-source type as a guide. Where <br />ground water was the source, withdrawals were assumed to be equal to the <br />calculated consumptive use. Surface-water-withdrawal data for livestock <br />watering were obtained from the State Engineer's Office. In most areas, <br />reported surface-water withdrawals were slightly larger than the calculated <br />consumptive use. However, in some areas, reported surface-water withdrawals <br />were much larger than calculated consumptive use, and some return flows were <br />assumed for these areas. <br /> <br />Livestock water use (60.7 million gallons per day) amounted to about <br />three-tenths of one percent of the total water used in Colorado. Weld County, <br />located in the South Platte subregion, has 20 percent of the State's 3 million <br />cattle and led counties in livestock water use (6.07 million gallons per day). <br />All nine of the counties in Colorado that have 75,000 or more head of cattle <br />are located east of the Continental Divide. Hogs (200,000 total) also are <br />produced primarily in the eastern half of the State. Sheep, on the other <br />hand, are raised mostly on the west slope, with 20 percent of the State's <br />total of 375,000 sheep in Moffat County alone. Tabular summaries of livestock <br />water-use data are listed in table 9 (for counties) and table 20 (for <br />hydrologic subregions) in the "Supplemental Data" section at the back of this <br />report. <br /> <br />Mining Water Use <br /> <br />Mining water use is water used for the extraction of minerals: solids, <br />such as coal and ores; liquids, such as crude petroleum; and gases, such as <br />natural gas. This category includes water used in quarrying, well operations <br />(dewatering), milling (crushing, screening, washing, flotation, and so forth), <br />and other preparations customarily done at the mine site or as part of a <br />mining activity. It does not include water used in the processing of raw <br />materials such as smelting ores, refining petroleum, and slurry pipeline <br /> <br />21 <br />