PUB00068

• Year: 1952
• Title: A Hundred Years of Irrigatioin in Colorado, 100 Years of Organized and Continuous Irrigation
• Author: CWCB
• Description: Irrigation history of Colorado
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

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Th~ Rio Grande produces an average of 1,550,000 acre-feet, of which
1,070,000 acre-feet are consumed within the State.

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The North Platte. River produces an average of 700,000 acre-feet, of
which 125,000 acre-feet are consumed within the State.

The South Platte River Produces an average of 1,650,000 acre-feet, of
of which 1,350,000 acre-feet are consumed within the State.

A minor watershed of the Kansas River produces approximately 200,000
acre-feet, of which about 10,000 acre-feet are consumed in the State.

Colorado River and its many tributaries produae an aver-age of
11,960,000 acre-feet a year or about 70 percent of the total water pro-
duced in the State, of which 4,760,000 acre-feet are. consumed within the
State.

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There is a great shortage of water on the Eastern Slope of our State
to meet present and future requirements. At the present time, there are
thirty transmountain diversion projects, practically all of which divert
water out of the Colorado River Basin into the Arkansas, Rio Grande and
South Platte River Basins for the purpose of supplementing the water sup-
plies of those basins. The old est of these transmountain diversions is
the Ewing Placer Ditch which diverts water from the Colorado River Basin
to the Arkansas River Basin.

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The principal transmountain diversion projects consist of the Laramie-
Poudre Tunnel, Grand River Ditch, Skyline Ditch, Independence Pass Tunnel
and the .Moffat and Jones Pass TUnnels owned by the City of Denver.

These transmountain projects divert on the average, about 133,770
acre-feet per year, which is but a fraction of what it will be possible to
divert when all the transmountain diversion projects now under construc-
tion or consideration have been completed. The largest transmountain
diversion project, now nearing completion, is the Colorado-Big Thompson
Project which is designed to divert, from the Colorado River into th~ South
Platte River Basin, approximately 300,000 acre~feet of water per year.

The City of Denver is engaged in driving a 23-mile tunnel to divert
about 200,000 acre-feet of water per year out of the Colorado River Basin
into the South Platte River Basin above Denver.

The Bureau of Reclamation is making studies to determine the feasibil-
ity and cost of diverting approximately 500,000 acre-feet of water from
the Colorado and Gunnison River basins to the Arkansas River basin to .
supply present and future needs in that basin.

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These projects are, and will be very costly. Their economic justi-
fication will depend upon their ability to reimburse the costs thereof not
only through the sale of water to the water users but also through the sale
of hydro-electric energy.

A law enacted in 1917 prohibits the diversion of water out of Colorado
for use in another State. This requirement may be corrected only by

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