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Watershed Resources The soils along the -drainage slopes vary from silty loams to sandy loams to coarse gravel. The soil series are Colby silt loam, Bridgeport loam, Havre loam, Epping and Keota- loams, Ascalon sandy loam, Chappell sandy loam, Dix and sandy alluvials. Except for the Epping and Keota soils, all have good hydrological ratings. All have good vegetative cover. The soils of the irrigated area are mainly Keith-Tripp-Bridgeport Associa- tions. Long time yield records show that these soils are consistently highly productive. In the extreme lower part of the watershed adjacent to the South Platte River flood plain, a saline condition exists in_some areas due to the low gradient from adjacent land to the South Platte Riv~r. - Soil surveys have been made and publ ished for most of the watershed area. These include: Deuel County, Nebraska issued June 1965 and Sedgwick County, Colorado issued December 1969. There is no assured water source from the watershed. Small flood flows from the upper plains are often taken into the irrigation canals that traverse the watershed and put to beneficial uses. The larger flows fill and overtop the canals. Irrigated lands -in the watershed are served primarily by gravity flow diversion Trom the South Platte River wi,th storage in the Julesburg __ - --4Wnbo-) Reservoi-r west of the wa-t-eFSood-. The Julesburg I f'F-i-~a-HeR-- --- District owns the Julesburg Reservoir and the Highline Canal that dis- tributes the stored water to the irrigated lands in Colorado and Nebraska. The Settlers Ditch, a pickup and distributi~n canal and the-Petersen Ditch, which diverts out of the South Platte just west of Sedgwick, Colorado are also part of the system traversing the watershed and serving the irrigated lands below Highline Canal.- The Petersen, unlike the other two canals, continues east of the water- shed across Lodgepole_ Creek and serves irrigated lands in Colorado in the vicinity of Julesburg. The lands under the system have_adequate water most years; however, a few landowners have drilled shallow wells into-the-va-lley alluvium to supplement surface water. The flood 'plain adjacent to the South Platte River has a high water table (fOlk'to five feet) which I imits production of irrigated crops. Surface drainage is impractical to lower the water table because of the flat gradient of land ~djacent to the river in thi5 vicinity. Wells serve -the needs for rural, domestic, municipal and industrial uses in the vicinity. The only known commercial mineral deposits occurring in the watershed are sand, gravel, and natural 9as. 8