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<br />Q902' <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />has been called the "10% solution." The arg1.lll1ent is that if agri- <br />culture saved between 10% to 10% a year of the delivered water <br /> <br />in the state, there would be no need to develop additional water <br />supplies. -I- <br /> <br />Westwide, the estimated installation cost of the physical <br /> <br />works necessary to achieve the 38.6 million acre foot reduction <br /> <br />in gross diversions mentioned above would be about $14.5 billion, <br /> <br />which doesn't include mitigation costs. However, because 35.3 <br />million acre feet in return flows would also be reduced, the net <br /> <br />savings would only be an estimated 3.3 million acre feet (less <br />than 10%), This represents saved water available for additional <br /> <br />use, but supplementing water supplies in areas now suffering seasonal <br /> <br />water shortages could require some 4.3 million acre feet. Further, <br /> <br />the resultant savings of 3.3 million acre feet would be salvaged <br /> <br />,.at an apparent cost of about $4,425 per acre foot, which hardly <br /> <br />makes such a conservation effort a bargain. _/ <br /> <br />The Sevier River Basin in Utah is an example of how much water <br /> <br />might actually be saved by increasing irrigation efficiency and <br /> <br />the resultant trade-offs. _/ The average off-farm convenance system <br /> <br />efficiency in the Sevier Basin is 67%, and the on-farm efficiency <br /> <br />is 45%. Of the 6 million acre feet of total precipitation in the <br /> <br />basin, about 1.1 million acre feet is captured and delivered to <br /> <br />irrigated lands. However, outflows to Sevier Lake and othe,- canals <br />and rivers total only 45,000 acre feet (for a basinwide utilization <br /> <br />rate of 96%). The apparent inconsistency between efficiency values <br /> <br />,f <br />