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Last modified
8/11/2009 11:41:09 AM
Creation date
9/30/2006 10:12:07 PM
Metadata
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Publications
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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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />.-39- <br /> <br />A third phase of this search for more water is found in the develop- <br />ment of pump irrigation. Until the 1930ls this type of irrigation was <br />not important in the Poudre Valley. However, the first well from which <br />water w'as to be pumped for irrigating purposes, was dug east of Eaton in <br />1888. <br /> <br />The search for additional water supplies reveals an ingenuity and <br />resourcefulness that is notable. However, the greatest. of the conserva- <br />tion measures developed in thePoudre has been the system of exchange <br />of water. The principle behind the exchange of water is very simple. <br />The higher up in the valley that water can be stored and used the more <br />efficient will be its us~. Evaporation losses will be at a minimum, and <br />return flow will be at a maximum. <br /> <br />/ <br /> <br />This is the sit~ation that has led to the development of the <br />exchange system. There are four large ditches coming out of the north <br />bank of the Poudre. The Cache La Poudre Ditch, which is the old Greeley <br />Number Two, is the oldest of the large ditches. Its head gate is the <br />farthest down the stream of any of the main ditches. Next is the Larimer <br />and Weld, the Eaton Ditch. Its priority is junior to the Cache La Poudre, <br />but it is senior to the Larimer County and the North poudre ditches. Its <br />head gate is above the Cache La poudre, but below the Larimer County <br />and North Poudre. Junior to all the ditches, but the highest on the <br />river, is the North Poudre. Now the Cache La Poudre Ditch Company could <br />insist on getting its decreed water from the direct flow of the river <br />during the late summer, while its three competitors would suffer from <br />lack of an adequate supply. It would be a more convenient and less <br />troublesome way. Instead, a system of water exchanges was developed which <br />has greatly increased the efficiency of irrigation, and stimulated the <br />utilization of all reservoir sites. The North poudre, for example, has <br />developed reservoirs which are too low to be of service-to lands lying <br />under its system. Therefore, to utilize this stored water, the North <br />poudre releases water to the Larimer County Ditch lying directly below <br />it, and, in turn, the Larimer County releases water from its reservoirs <br />to the Larimer and Weld. Finally, the Larimer and Weld releases water <br />from its reservoirs to the Cache La Poudre, which completes the exchange, <br />by permitting the North Foudre to divert water from the North Fork of <br />the river for use in the Wellington district. This system of exchanges <br />was developed by private agreement. The water commissioner now super- <br />vises such exchanges, covers 5 percent toll to cover seepage losses in <br />transit, and keeps a complete record of the amounts exchanged between the <br />several irrigation companies. This development is a great achievement <br />in co-operation and greatly promotes the efficiency of the use of water <br />in the poudre Valley. <br /> <br />other contributions have been made from the Poudre Valley. Dr. Law <br />and G. roax Clark were the pioneers interested in water measurement. Ulti- <br />mately, the problem was satisfactorily solved by another poudre man, Ralph <br />Parshall. At Colorado A & M, Elwood Mead started the first work in <br />irrigation engineering. His successor at the College, after Mead had <br />gone on to Wyoming, was Louis Carpenter. Under Professor Carpenter the <br />first experiment station work in irrigated agriculture was undertaken. <br />It was a Greeley man, Delph Carpenter, who became the great exponent of <br />
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