WSP05534

• File Number: 8273.600
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agencies - USDA
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 4/1/1994
• Author: USDA
• Title: Monitoring and Evaluation Report for the McElmo Creek Unit of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - 1993 Annual Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

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II. HYDRO-SALINITY MONITORING & EVALUATION

1. setting

a. Irrigation Delivery systems

The McElmo Creek Salinity area obtains water for irrigation
through two private irrigation companies and the Federal
canal system. This water comes from the Dolores River which
empties into the McPhee. Reservoir. From the reservoir, the
water goes through a tunnel into the canal systems, then
into the different laterals. Irrigation water from the
various laterals'is delivered to individuals fields through'
open ditches and underground pipelines.

The irrigation systems commonly used by the farmers include:
earth ditch to field furrows or corrugates and underground.
pipeline to sideroll sprinkler systems as well as some gated
pipe systems.

b. Monitoring site Descriptions

overview: The McElmo Creek Monitoring & Evaluation Plan was
established in August 1988. It was intended at that time
that monitoring would consist of 8 sites. It has since been
scaled down to 3-5 sites with the intent of moving, the sites
as the M&E program progresses. ..

The monitoring procedure for the 1993 irrigation season
consisted of reading flow meters-that were installed in the
pipeline delivery systems to individual farms or fields.
There are more than two hundred sites with this type of
installation. These flow meters were installed by the
Bureau of Reclamation and are part of the Montezuma Valley
Irrigation System. with the cooperation of the Montezuma
Valley Irrigation Company, the Monitoring and Evaluation.
Team members were allowed access to read these meters which
are under lock and key.

with the installation of these flow meters, a more accurate
means of collecting data for monitoring and evaluation is
now available.

1993 Irrigation Monitoring: The Monitoring and Evaluation
(M&E) personnel monitored 7 sites during the 1993 irrigation
season. six sites were evaluated for the 1993 report and
the seventh site was dropped because of unusable data. All
sites selected for monitoring were located south of Cortez
in priority area one. Two sites were individual fields and
tour sites were entire farms or a portion of a farm. The
crops monitored were alfalfa or alfalfa-grass mixture
fields.

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