WSP00697

• File Number: 8200.750
• Description: San Juan River General
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 3/1/1960
• Author: Clifford H Jex
• Title: Report on Stream Depletion of the San Juan River Basin in Colorado - March 1960
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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003242

ment is complete, an additional 400 acres of land will be placed under

irrigation.

The land owners in the Little Navajo River Basin plan the construction

of a canal from the main Navajo River to Little Navajo River. The U.S. Soil

Conservation Service has run engineering surveys on alternate lines for the

canal and in the summer of 1959 survey work was completed for construction.

A canal of 30 cfs capacity will provide water for the irrigation of about

450 acres of new land and a supplemental supply for the presently irrigated

land in the Little Navajo River Basin in need of additional water.

Field reconnaissance studies, with use of topographic maps and aerial

photographs show that the construction of a twelve-mile canal would deliver

Rio Blanco River water to land located in Coyote Park. The canal would head

in Blanco Basin at an elevation of about 8,100 feet and would cross a low

saddle between Rio Blanco River and Coyote Creek. The canal would parallel

an existing canal constructed in 1956 for the irrigation of land in the

drainage basin of the Blanco River.

Records of Rio Blanco River runoff collected near the point of diversion

of the proposed new canal indicate a canal of a capacity of about 50 cfs

could be justified. With additional water in the Coyote Creek Basin the

development of a small amount of reservoir storage may prove economically

justified. If the canal is constructed, 2,500 acres of new land in Coyote

Park would be irrigated.

In addition to the potential new irrigation discussed above, enlargement

and extension of existing canals and reuse of return flow water will serve an

additional 200 acres.

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