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<br />i f'~a~'l <br />"__ - '-' I:) <br /> <br />now produce such cash crops as fruit, grass, and alfalfa hay, <br />Less than 1 percent of the pinyon-juniper-sagebrush type has been <br />converted to dry farmland which produces some hay and winter <br />wheat. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Water Resources <br /> <br />Melting snowpack in the high mountain areas is the region's <br />principal water supply, Water yields to the Gunnison River range <br />from more than 30 inches (76,2 em) per year of runoff in parts of <br />the Anthracite Range and West Elk and San Juan Mountains, to less <br />than 1 inch (2.5 em) per year in the low, dry, warmer parts of the <br />region. The drainage area above the study segment accounts for <br />60 percent of the undepleted flow of the Gunnison River; i.e., the <br />flow that would have existed without the influence of man. <br /> <br />Surface waters of the region are generally of excellent quality and, <br />in most areas, well suited to irrigation. There are a few places in <br />the lower part of the region where return flows from irrigated <br />areas, or inflows from salt or sediment-producing areas, contain <br />undesirable amounts of sediment or dissolved salts. These small <br />flows are rapidly diluted by the larger streams into which they <br />flow. The adverse effects are generally localized, and they have <br />little influence on the quality of the water supply of the region as a <br />whole. <br /> <br />The Gunnison River above the study segment is used for generation <br />of hydroelectric power as well as for minicipal, industrial, and <br />irrigation purposes, Small quantities are diverted from the <br />headwaters of the Gunnison to the Arkansas and Rio Grande basins <br />by the Larkspur, Tarbell, and Tabor Ditches. The Gunnison <br />Tunnel, whose intake is located just upstream from the study <br />segment, furnishes water for irrigation to the nearby Uncompahgre <br /> <br />27 <br />