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<br />under construction. Included are seepage control from the Towaoc-Highline Canal, Rocky Ford <br />laterals, Lone Pine lateral, and the Upper Hermana lateral. <br /> <br />,.... <br />C)l <br />o <br />CD <br /> <br />The McE1mo Creek USDA salinity control repon was published in 1983 with the final environmental <br />impact statement released in 1989. The recommended plan calls for treatment of about 21,550 acres <br />with sprinkler irrigation systems and about 270 miles of onfarm ditch and lateral lining. <br /> <br />Implementation of the USDA program has been underway in this area since 1990. The major salinity <br />reduction practices being iilstalled are side-roll sprinkler systems, underground pipelines, and gated <br />pipe. A fully coordinated implementation effon is underway, so design and installation of the laterals <br />by Reclamation complement the onfarm irrigation systems. Joint planning actions with Reclamation <br />have made it possible to install gravity pressure sprinkler systems on an additional 9,000 acres. <br /> <br />Meeker Dome Unit <br /> <br />Meeker Dome, the site of several abandoned oil and gas exploratory wells, is a local anticlinal uplift <br />in northwestern Colorado, 3 miles east of the town of Meeker and on the right bank: of the White <br />River. The Meeker Well, originally drilled for oil exploration purposes and abandoned in the 1920's, <br />was identified as a significant point source of salinity in the Colorado River System (figure 9). <br />Before the well was plugged to depth below 550 feet in 1968, it was flowing at a rate of about 3 ft!/s, <br />and its highly saline water (l9,200 mglL) was increasing the salt load of the Colorado River by about <br />57,000 tons per year. <br /> <br />In February 1969, two abandoned wells 2 miles <br />north of the Meeker Well also were reponed to <br />be flowing saline water and were plugged 8 <br />months later. Further seepage appeared in the <br />same year in four areas within a mile radius of <br />the plugged Meeker Well. <br /> <br />Meeker Dome <br /> <br />Feasibility investigations were initiated in early <br />1979 by a multi-disciplinary planning team of <br />interested local, Slate, and Federal agencies, as <br />well as special interest groups and private <br />citizens. These investigations were designed to <br />gain a better understanding of the quantity, <br />sources, and mechanisms by which saline water <br />enters the White River and then to identify <br />alternatives that would eliminate or greatly reduce the salt contribution to the river. <br /> <br /> <br />- <br />- <br /> <br />- <br />- <br />\11_ <br />WOO <br /> <br />Technical investigations were conducted by Reclamation through a professional services contract with <br />CH,M Hill, a water resources consulting firm. The results of the study indicated that, of the eight oil <br />and gas exploratory wells drilled on the dome, four were adequately plugged. The other four were <br />believed to be unplugged or inadequately plugged and acting as conduits allowing saline water from <br />deep geological formations to flow through shallower ground-water aquifers and pollute surface <br />waters of the White River. To verify this theory, a program was initiated to clean, test, and plug the <br /> <br />33 <br />