WSP04498

• File Number: 8276.120
• Description: Grand Valley Unit-Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 6/1/1983
• Title: Supplement To Definite Plan Report: Stage Two Development Grand Valley Unit
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Definite Plan Report

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CHAPTER II

UNIT SETTING

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Employment and income

Mesa County employment increased from 22,314 in 1970 to 37,009

in 1980, an average growth rate of 5.2 percent.

Employment increases

were substantial in retail trade, local and Federal Government, services,

and construction, mining, and mining-related industry.

In keeping with

trends toward farm consolidation and urban growth, a decline occurred in

farming and farm labor in the unit area from 1970 to 1980 at a rate

nearly double State and national rates.

In 1980, Mesa County's unemployment rate of 5.5 percent was compa-

rable to that of the State of Colorado at 5.6 percent. Per capita

income in Mesa County in 1979 was about $7,l67 or 89.6 percent of the

Statewide per capita income of $7,999.

Industry

Major industrial activity in the unit area is in retail trades--the

largest producer of revenue--and in manufac turing, services, and con-

struction.

Mining is also a major supplier of revenue, and recreation/

tourism provides an additional, ongoing contribution to the unit area's

economic base.

Although agriculture contributes to the economy of the unit area,

the trend in Mesa County seems to indicate that the number of commercial

farms and ranches is decreasing.

The numbers of both farmers and farm

.

laborers have decreased from lO.l percent of total unit area employment

in 1970 to 5.0 percent in 1980.

From 1969 to 1978, total number of

farms declined by 7.8 percent.

Livestock is an important part of the

agricultural economy of the county and is dependent upon large acreages

of dry pasture, with numbers of cattle, hogs, and sheep currently at a

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