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<br />6 <br /> <br />Paonia Project <br /> <br />This west-central Colorado Project consists of the Fire Mountain Canal <br />and Paoui.a Dam and Reservoir. Paonia Reservoir has a total storage <br />capaci.ty of ,21,000 acre-feet nth an estimated 9,800 acre-foot annual <br />depletion from the Gunnison River. <br /> <br />Fruitgrawers Project <br /> <br />The Fruitgrowers Dam project in southwestern Colorado furni.shes irrigation <br />water for nearly 2,700 acres. The reservoir behind Fruitgrowers Dam, <br />filled from natural flow of Alfalfa Run and by diversion from Surface <br />and Dry Creeks, stores a total of 4,600 acre-feet of water with an <br />,estimated annual depletion of 7,200 acre-feet from the Gunnison River. <br />Construction of the dam was completed in 1939. . <br /> <br />Uncompahgre 'Valley Project <br /> <br />This. project is on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in west- <br />central Colorado. Project features include the Taylor Park Dam and <br />Reservoir, Gunnison TUnnel, seven diversion dams, 143 miles of main <br />c"n,,'s, 425 miles of laterals, and 215 1Ili.les of drains. The system <br />diverts water from the Uncompahgre and Gunnison Rivers to irrigate over <br />76,000 acres of land. Taylor Park Dam, on the Taylor River, creates a <br />reservoir with a storage capacity of 106,200 acre-feet, with an estimated <br />annual depletion of 5.200 acre-feet from the Gunnison River. All of the <br />projects were completed by r9~7. <br /> <br />Dominguez Project <br /> <br />The Dominguez Reservoir project would be located along the Gunnison <br />River near Whitewater, Colorado. This multi-purpose project would <br />develop water for hydroelectric power and industrial consumption. <br />Dominguez Reservoir would inundate 26 miles, of river and have a storage <br />capacity of 302.000 acre-feet of water with an annual depletion of <br />68,000 acre-feet from the Gunnison River. Congress will probably consider <br />construction authorization somet~e in 1981. <br /> <br />Cumulative Effects <br /> <br />The above projects deplete a total of 158,000 acre-feet of water annually. <br />Based on la-year flow records (1968-1978) recorded by the U.S. Geological <br />Survey and published in the Water .Resources Data Annual Reports for Utah <br />and Colorado, the average annual depletions from the above CRSP reservoirs <br />on the Gunnison River is 8 percent of the annual flows. The cumulative <br />depletion of flow considering maximum depletion for each project in a <br />high-water-year (1970) would be 7 percent and for a low water year <br />(1977) 13 percent of the annual flow. We consider these figures to be <br />conservative estimates because they do not include all of the diversions <br />nor any evaporation 10ss~s. <br />