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. CHAPTER II COMPREHENSIVE PLAN The stream depletion attributable to the Juniper project would be assigned to the States of Colorado and Utah as a portion of each State's water of the Upper Colorado River Basin allotted under terms of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact. It has been.assumed that each State would bear a share of the depletion in proportion to the project irrigated land in the State, On this basis 75,000 acre-feet of the depletion would be assigned to Colorado and 160,000 acre-feet to Utah. The actual effects of the Juniper project operations would be to decrease the flows below Juniper Reservoir in some months when natural flows would be diverted into canals or held in storage and to increase the downstream flows in some months with releases of storage water for power and the stream fishery and with return flows from irrigation diver- sions. In the present studies the net effects of project operations on downstream flows have been estimated only on a long-term average annual basis and not by individual months. Agricultural Economy . Reconnaissance estimates have been made of irrigation water users' capacity to pay toward project costs and of irrigation benefits for the Juniper project area. The estimates were based on projections from detailed agricultural and budget analyses previously made in feasibility investigations of the Savery-Pot Hook and Fruitland Mesa projects in west- ern Colorado. The Savery-Pot Hook and Fruitland Mesa project areas are similar to the Juniper area in that they are at relatively high altitudes and have low precipitation, With irrigation, lands in the three areas would sustain similar types of agriculture. Data from the previous analyses for the Savery-Pot Hook and Fruitland Mesa projects were adjusted to the Juniper project area largely by judgment to approximate local conditions. Comparative climatic and related data for the three project areas are shown below, Savery-Pot Fruitland Hook Mesa Juniper ~ro.ject ~roject project Elevation of project lands (feet) 5, 00-6,700 6, 00-8,000 4,700-6,000 Annual precipitation (inches) 13 10 8 Effective irrigation season precipitation (feet} 0.55 0.31 0,22 Avg, frost-free period (days) 99 135 120 Irrigation season (days) 150 156 150 Average irrigation season con- sumptive use of water (acre-feet per acre) 2,00 1.78 1.88 . 44