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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />ft.~~~r, <br />DL~~;01 <br /> <br />costs, recovery costs and other negative side effects; and 3) off-farm inter- <br />ception and recovery of water before it reaches otherwise inaccessible or <br />unsuitable destinations (e.g. saline sinks). <br /> <br />Water recovery and reuse almost always incurs additional costs, and <br />usually additional energy requirements for pumping, structural facilities or <br />other costs. Even with these additional costs however, the costs of water <br />saved in surface recovery systems is typically much cheaper to apply (per <br />unit of water) than comparable quantities pumped from the Ogallala. <br /> <br />IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AND IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT <br /> <br />A relatively few typical irrigation methods and systems characterize <br />most High Plains area irrigated farming. The early development of High <br />Plains irrigation was principally by various surface (gravity) application <br />methods, with open ditches and surface distribution utilizing the natural <br />slope of the land. These early methods were largely constrained by soil and <br />slope conditions (and early well and pump technology) to heavier soils areas <br />of moderate (less than one percent) slope. <br /> <br />Rapidly improving irrigation technology has produced several variations <br />on the early gravity systems, although many thousands of acres are still <br />irrigated the original way. Concrete lined ditches and buried pipe of <br />concrete, asbestos-cement or plastic have replaced most open ditch conveyance <br />systems. Land shaping by grading, leveling, benching and terracing has per- <br />mitted the effective irrigation of lands formerly too steep or uneven to <br />water. Development of inexpensive aluminum pipe has facilitated easily por- <br />table and even self-propelled water conveyance and application methods. <br /> <br />The evolution of increasingly sophisticated and automated sprinkler <br />irrigation systems has permitted the development of large areas of lands for- <br />merly considered too sandy or too rough to irrigate. A set of illustrations <br />(See Figures 1, 2, & 3) show the more typical gravity and sprinkler irriga- <br />tion systems presently in use in the High Plains study area. More than 95 <br />percent of the irrigated acreage in the High Plains uses some variation of <br />these more common methods. <br /> <br />7 <br />