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<br />Uncompahgre River (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 1984). More water was needed <br />to supply the arable lands in the valley, so the State of Colorado started <br />construction of a tunnel from the Gunnison River in 1901. The State was <br />unable to complete the tunnel and asked for aid from the newly established <br />Reclamation Service. The Gunnison Tunnel (fig. 1) was completed in 1909 and <br />a diversion dam was completed on the Gunnison River in 1912. This reclamation <br />project was called the Uncompahgre Project and was one of the first Federal <br />reclamation projects (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 1984). New canals were <br />constructed and existing canals were acquired and improved where needed and <br />included in the project. The operation and maintenance of the project was <br />transferred from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to the Uncompahgre Valley <br />Water User's Association in 1932. <br /> <br />Taylor Park Reservoir (fig. 1), completed in 1937, has a storage capacity <br />of 106,200 acre-ft on the Taylor River, a headwater tributary of the Gunnison <br />River. The reservoir was built to supply dependable flows in the river during <br />summer and fall and is part of the Uncompahgre Project. Blue Mesa Reservoir <br />(storage capacity 940,800 acre-ft, 111,200 acre-ft of which is dead storage) <br />was completed in 1965 on the Gunnison River upstream from the Gunnison Tunnel <br />Diversion (fig. 1). That reservoir is part of the U.S. Bureau of <br />Reclamation's Colorado River Storage Project. In 1987, Ridgway Reservoir <br />(fig. 1) was completed on the Uncompahgre River between Ridgway and Colona. <br />Ridgway Reservoir (storage capacity 84,590 acre-ft) is part of the U.S. Bureau <br />of Reclamation's Dallas Creek Project, and 10,300 acre-ft of water from that <br />project is used to augment irrigation supplies to the Uncompahgre Project. <br /> <br />Sweitzer Lake was built in 1954 on land donated to the State of Colorado <br />with the condition that a reservoir be built for recreation. The lake, a <br />State park operated by the Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, <br />primarily is used for boating, picnicking, fishing, and limited bird hunting. <br />The Colorado Division of Wildlife has responsibility for the fishery in the <br />lake. In 1974, the Division of Wildlife decided to stop stocking the lake <br />because of suspected selenium problems. A warning sign was posted at the lake <br />in 1977 advising people not to eat fish caught from the lake. The Division of <br />Wildlife restocked 1,000 catfish in Sweitzer Lake in 1984. <br /> <br />Physiography and Climate <br /> <br />The Uncompahgre River valley is about 1 mi wide at Colona and about 5 to <br />7 mi wide between Montrose and Delta. Elevation ranges from about 4,900 ft <br />at Delta to about 5,900 ft at Colona. The area west of the river is a series <br />of terraces separated by small valleys eroded by tributaries of the <br />Uncompahgre River. The terraces are stream deposits and outwash remnants. <br />The land east of the river is characterized by rolling terrain formed by <br />erosion of the Mancos Shale. Sweitzer Lake is in a minor depression on Garnet <br />Mesa, about 100 ft above the Uncompahgre River. <br /> <br />Climate in the Uncompahgre Valley downstream from Colona is semi-arid <br />and varies with elevation. The valley is dry with generally low humidity; <br />the annual class A pan evaporation at Montrose is about 58 in. Annual <br />precipitation (1951-80) ranges from 8 in. at Delta to about 12 in. at <br />Colona (U.S. Geological Survey, 1984). Annual snowfall in the Uncompahgre <br /> <br />8 <br />