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<br />. 1 <br />2 <br /> 3 <br /> 4 <br /> 5 <br /> 6 <br /> 7 <br /> 8 <br /> 9 <br /> 10 <br /> 11 <br /> 12 <br /> 13 <br /> 14 <br /> 15 <br /> 16 <br /> 17 <br /> 18 <br /> 19 <br /> 20 <br /> 21 <br /> 22 <br /> 23 <br />. 24 <br />25 <br /> 26 <br /> 27 <br /> 28 <br /> 29 <br /> 30 <br /> 31 <br /> 32 <br /> 33 <br /> 34 <br /> 35 <br /> 36 <br /> 37 <br /> 38 <br /> 39 <br /> 40 <br /> 41 <br /> 42 <br /> 43 <br /> 44 <br /> 45 <br />. <br /> <br />DRAFT <br /> <br />Agriculture and land use, including the silent conversion of water, how 1/5 of the <br />irrigated base is now supplied from finite non-renewable ground water sources, which <br />might be an area for further investigation. 80% of water used is to produce salad for <br />cows, remainder is in agricultural crops. 5.4 maf of water consumptively used in 1995. <br />Supports 3.4 million people and in turn generates over a billion dollars worth of crops. <br />The money generated and jobs created isn't just eastern Colorado and San Luis <br />Valley. , .its all over the state. 80% of voters sampled said Agriculture is important to our <br />quality of life, and 85% said maintaining it is very important to them. <br /> <br />Agriculture and water - at least 450,000 AF of water in Colorado is undeveloped at <br />present. CWCB fact sheets say - ]I, of water diverted in 1998 went to irrigation. Go <br />back in time, look at water diversions or withdrawals from the 1997 report by the Farm <br />Bureau, showing the division of water by end use, Agriculture made 60% of the <br />withdrawals, Most recent data on consumptive use is the 1995 USGS data, it shows of <br />5,9 mafused, agriculture used 94% of it. Statewide withdrawals are 3 times as much as <br />consumptive use, How does agriculture us its share of the water pie? The net irrigation <br />requirement, which is entire amount of water needed after precipitation is considered. <br />Alfalfa needs 3 acre-feet of water. Mother Nature gives 1 acre-foot of water, irrigation is <br />the other 2 acre-feet of water. Net Irrigation is not the same as consumptive use. If you <br />multiply the net irrigation requirement times the irrigated acreage, you get the net <br />irrigation water needed in Colorado. Net irrigation requirement is ifland got 100% of <br />what it needed; amount of water needed would be 5.8 maf. <br /> <br />How will agriculture and water interface with population growth issues: 4.0 million <br />population today, 6,5 million by 2025,50% increase over the current base. Most <br />increases will be in the Arkansas and South Platte, Lost 1.4 million acres in last 10-year <br />period or 140,000 acres per year, Where is it going? 20% paved over or urbanized, some <br />to open space, wildlife habitat, and parks, How can we better quantify? Some acreage is <br />going into 35-acre tracts, What is quality ofland being converted? No real good info to <br />give you. Important to note that only lout of 40 acres in our land bases meets USDA <br />definition of prime agricultural land. Approximately]l, of our irrigated lands are prime. <br />Why don't we know more? We need 3 layers of GIS maps to identify. We have good <br />soil maps, but we don't have our irrigated acreage spatially displayed across the state. If <br />we did, it would show us where the prime land is. Third, if we could add a layer of <br />where the development pressure is, this would give us a much better picture of where our <br />best land and water is and whether or not it is endangered. I'll turn it over to Don and <br />Ray, <br /> <br />Rod Kuharich - one comment - we're identifying the infrastructure and developing <br />information of future demands. This will dovetail with the basin fact sheets, The DSS are <br />essentially complete for Colorado and Rio Grande. For these two basin, we have data <br />like this. It's going to be several years, but we're working toward being able to identify <br />this statewide. Over time, we'll be able to see the changes in crop patterns and <br />agricultural use, <br /> <br />3 <br />