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<br />14 <br /> <br />Independent seepage studies of canals, laterals, and farm ditches <br />were made by USBR, ARS, SCS, and Colorado State University(CSU). <br />USBR installed and monitored about 278 wells in the area. USBR, <br />USGS, EPA, CSU, ARS, state, and others collected salinity data on <br />irrigation subsurface return flow and developed or helped develop <br />water and salt budgets. <br /> <br />USBR and USGS monitored about 14 major drains returning <br />irrigation water to the Colorado River from the Grand Valley <br />project. Records for about 15 years were compiled. Base flow <br />concentrations collected during November, December, January, and <br />February averaged consistently year after year about 4000 mg/L or <br />5 tons/acre foot. Flow weighted averages were published in the <br />1986 USBR Plan/EIS for Grand Valley of 4.25 tons per acre foot. <br />An average 4.05 tons/acre foot of salt pickup by seepage and deep <br />percolation was determined (1986 USBR EIS Report). This is a 20 <br />percent reduction in the salt loading factor from that assumed in <br />the 1977 and 1980 USDA Grand Valley planning reports. <br /> <br />SCS in conjunction with ARS, USBR, USGS, Colorado State <br />University, and Cooperative Extension has been monitoring onfarm <br />irrigation improvements and return flows since 1979 for the <br />salinity program. This information is being used to further <br />refine and modify the USDA salt and water budgets and verify salt <br />load reductions being obtained by the salinity control program. <br />All data will be used in a hydrosalinity analysis and summarized <br />in a USDA M&E report in 1993. USGS continues to monitor the <br />Colorado River Basin and the Grand Valley river gaging stations. <br /> <br />Water and salt budgets were developed for the Grand Valley unit <br />using inflow and outflow analysis on the river system and by <br />making irrigation water and salt budgets. Several hydrosalinity <br />models have been developed by USBR (latest was the model results <br />of 1985 published in the Stage Two 1986 EIS). The results have <br />refined numbers and confirmed the validity of the basic overall <br />salt loading published in the 1977 USDA Final Report of the Grand <br />Valley Salinity Study. The 1977 published value for total salt <br />loading was 600,000 tons per year and onfarm salt loading of <br />297,000 tons/year. This is within the range of accuracy (plus or <br />minus lOt) desired in planning and operations. A 300,000 ton per <br />year salt contribution (+ or - 10\) attributed to onfarm <br />irrigation has been verified by USBR. A value computed by SCS in <br />199J, based on monitoring, results in 305,000 ton/year salt <br />loading figure from onfarm irrigation for the future without <br />project condition. <br /> <br />However, SCS monitoring for the whole irrigation season during <br />the last 10 years has changed the long time held idea that little <br />onfarm deep percolation occurred in Grand Valley and in similar <br />areas of Gunnison and McElmo Creek. Monitoring during the full <br />irrigation season instead of only in mid-summer has revealed <br />significant deep percolation; about 40 percent of the seasonal <br />deep percolation occurs during the first two irrigations. The <br />