BOARD00158

• Board Meeting Date: 12/12/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

eliminated annually in the Grand Valley area at an economical cost.
We believe the Grand Valley also must be included in the bill for
immediate construction. This would involve primarily the lining of
canals and major laterals. Other improvements would have to take
place. We are hoping that the Soil Conservation Service can make a
major contribution to on-farm improvements.

I

Mr. Williams: Larry, if I might comment just a moment here. I have
a copy of a letter from J. Collins, District Conservationist, Soil
Conservation District, dated December 4. In part it says, "Since
April 1, 1972, 69.2 miles of laterals and canals have been lined.
This has resulted in a salt reduction of 17,852 tons." I appreciate
that this has to be taken with other information, but I honestly do
believe that that's a great start for over there.

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Mr. Sparks: Yes. That's been going on now for several years.
we want to do is accelerate that program.

What

:i

From our staff, Mr. Longley and Mr. Harvey have been transferred to
the Grand Valley area to work on such things as sprinkler irrigation,
drip irrigation, automation, and that type of thing, to reduce the
amount of water that is actually applied to the land.

Mr. Williams: And may I commend T. J. Longley and his staff over
there for the terrific jOb they are doing. They have been well
accepted and he is doing a marvelous job.

Mr. Sparks: This is the type of program that we would like to expand.
We have asked the Soil Conservation Service for help in this field
because it is an ideal agency to actually work on the farms. This
would complement the Bureau of Reclamation's work of lining the
major laterals and canals. We are talking about a fairly expensive
project, but once it is put in th~ energy requirements are almost
nil and the annual operation and maintenance is very small as compared
to a desalination plant. We believe that improvement of on-farm
irrigation practices must be a major area of effort.

The major area of salt contribution from irrigation in western Colo- I
rado is not the Colorado River, but the Gunnison River. The Gunnison
River Valley contains more than twice the irrigated acreage as does
the Grand Valley. They are irrigating on essentially the same type
of soil, that is either Mancos shale or decomposed Mancos shale
which has a high salinity content. The actual contribution from the
Gunnison River exceeds a million tons of salt per year. We hope to
apply the lessons learned in the Grand Valley to a major project on
the lower Gunnison, which is primarily the Montrose-Delta-Ouray

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