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<br />Average diversions in the District were 206,000 acre.feet for direct
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<br />use and 349,000 for storage, a total of 555,000 acre-feet.
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<br />Adding this figure to the recorded Balzac discharge and deducting
<br />the Kersey flow of 509,000, we get 304,000 acre-feet as the average annual
<br />return flow in the 65 miles of river in District One. These returns vary
<br />from 384,000 ,acre-feet, or 8.1 C.F.S. per nd1e in 1946 to a minimum of
<br />102,000 acre~feet or 2.2 C.F.S. in 1955 -- the lowest of the recent four
<br />year "drouth" period. Also, these flows fluctuate widely during the year
<br />due largely to interception of the returns during the growing season by
<br />the hundreds of irrigation wells.
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<br />Howevtlr, 132,000 of the storage diversions were for North Sterling
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<br />and Prewitt reservoir in District Sixty-four. Subtracting this from the
<br />total divers~on of 555,000 leaves 423,000 diverted for use in District One.
<br />If we add the figure of 132,000 acre-feet to the recorded Balzac
<br />flow of 258,000 getting 390,000 and then subtract this from the Kersey flow
<br />of 509,000, we find that only 119,000 acre.feet was actually consumed in
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<br />District One.
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<br />Or, if we deduct the 304,000 acre-feet return flow from the 423,000
<br />diverted for District One use, we get the same figure of 119,000 acre-feet
<br />or 28% of the diversions.
<br />Apparently, on the face of these figures and ignoring rainfall effects,:
<br />this use includes evaporation on reservoirs and canals and the consumptive
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<br />use of the water pumped from wells as well as the actual transpiration and
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<br />evaporation from' surface supplies on the crops in the fields under,the ditches~
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<br />Available figures on irrigated acreage are not entirely accurate but
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<br />assuming 130,000 acres (including about 35,000 acres above the ditches and
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<br />supplied by wells) the consumption would be about nine-tenths of an acre-foot
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<br />per acre.
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