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<br />i <br /> <br />OOH56 <br /> <br />-24- <br /> <br />.' <br /> <br />and to the above estimated depletions of potential irrigation projects <br />listed in the Report, Colorado says that an allowance might properly be <br />made for the depletions of additional irrigable, arable and pasture lands <br />that may be expected to be irrigated, which additional depletions are es- <br />timated by Colorado engineers at 318.000 aore feet annually in Colorado. <br />and 205,000 acre feet annually in other Upper Basin States, or a total of <br />523,000 aore feet a lIlUally in the Upper Basin. The several factors in- <br />volved in said estimation, forecast, or assumption, may be outlined as <br />follows I <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />(a) Irrigable Lands. Acoording to the 1940 U. S. census, the <br />irrigable lands under existing irrigation enterprises which the con- <br />struoted works were capable of supplying with water exceeded the acreage <br />irrigated by 343,779 acres in the Upper Basin. of which 205,258 acres <br />were in Colorado. Some of such irrigable lands are to be served by the <br />potential projects listed in the Report, but the remaining irrigable <br />lands may in time and probably will in part be irriGated through activ- <br />ities and agencies other than the Bureau of Reclamation. <br /> <br />(b) Arable Lands. Aocording to land classification surveys <br />of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Class 1 and 2 arable lands in western <br />Colorado aggregate 706,480 acres, - a surveyed and classified acreage <br />which Colorado says is inoomplete. Of the said acreage. 471,330 acres <br />are to be irrigated by the potential projects listed in the Report. Of <br />the remaining 235..l50 acres (or more) of arable land known to be suit- <br />able for reclamation by irri~ation, a fraction thereof may be included <br />in the previously mentioned La) irrigable lands; another part may be des- <br />tined to remain unirrigated; but the balance of the arable lands may, and <br />in time probably will, be irrigated by projects other than those listed <br />in the Report., even though physical conditions and the scattered locations <br />of such lands require that reclamation be accanplished by numerous devel... <br />opments of such small individual magnitude that they fail to interest the <br />Bureau of Reclamation. <br /> <br />.' <br /> <br />(c) pasture Lands. The need for and possibilities of pasture <br />irrigation are igncred in the Report. According to the 1940 U. S. Cen- <br />sus there were l31,923 acres of irrigated pasture in western Colorado, <br />in addition to meadowlands from which native hay crops were harvested. <br />Livestock production is one of the most important of the wealth prodUC- <br />ing industries in Colorado, and in connection therewith there is a gro..... <br />ing need for additional irrigated pasture lends. Livestock interests in <br />Gunni son Ccunty claim both the need and the oppcrtuni ty for an addition- <br />al 220,000 acres of irrigated pasture in that county alone, lUld other <br />livestock producing areas in western Colorado have similar plans or hopes <br />for increasing the acreage of irrigated pastures. Colorado says that <br />the Bureau of Reclamation should consider the opportunities for the re- <br />clamation of pasture lands by irrigation, and .that allowances for the <br />probable ultimate depletions of such lands should appear in the Report, <br />together with those of the previously mentioned irrigable and arable . <br />lands developed for harvested crops. <br /> <br />t <br />