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<br />.. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />OJl116 <br /> <br />Draft - 9/81 <br /> <br />acre-feet of water annually for agricultural consumption. As- <br /> <br />suming the cropping patterns shown in Table 5, 81,732 additional <br />acres could be put into production. Thus, in both the likely and <br />the high estimates, the Southwest Reg ion is projected to ha~e <br />more additional water a~ailable for agricultural consumption than <br />any other region. <br />GunnIson <br />The high estimate for the Gunnison RegIon reflects the com- <br />pletion of the Fruitland Mesa Project as well as the Dallas Creek <br />Project described in Chapter 5. Construction money for Fruitland <br />flesa is not included in the current federal budget, so its com- <br />pl.-tion by the year 2000 is doubtful. If it is constructed, <br />26,000 additional acre-feet of water would be available for con- <br />sumption by Irrigated agrIculture in the regIon. . As shown in <br />Table 6, 11,872 additional acres could be put into irrigated pro- <br />duction. <br />Colorado River Mainstem <br />Many ~otentlal project sites ha~e been studied In the Colo- <br />rado River Mainstem Region during the last 50 years. However, <br />most of the land that might be developed through thes.- projects <br />would be in areas of low agricultural product ivity. Hence.it is <br />unlikely that the projects could repay the costs of irrigation <br />development. The single project that is currently authorized is <br />West Divide. It forms the basis for the high estimate and, if <br />constructed, would provide 35,700 acre-feet of water annually for <br />agricultural depletion. The land use pattern for additional <br />de~elopment would be heavily devoted to hay, forage, and small <br /> <br />8 <br />