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<br />....-"...\ ~. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />WATER DEPLETION BY BENeFICIAL CONSUMPTIVE USE <br /> <br />COLORADO RIVER BASIN <br /> <br />Depletions caused by man's activities in the Colorado River <br /> <br />Basin have been studied extensively by various Federal and State agencies. <br /> <br />These uses have been tabulated by drainage basin, by state, by type of use <br /> <br />and by location both within and without the physical Basin. <br /> <br />The magnitude of the three largest categories <br /> <br />agricultural use <br /> <br />within the drainage basins, diversions for all purposes to adjacent drainage <br /> <br />basins, and evaporation losses from all reservoirs -- is reasonably well <br /> <br />known. <br /> <br />Irrigation uses are computed by anplyinB estimated consumptive use <br /> <br />rates to measured agricultural areas. These areas now total about 1,600,000 <br /> <br />. acres and have been determined accurately by various State and Federal <br /> <br />resource agencies. Since there is no simple basin-wide method of determining <br /> <br />consumptive uses by diversions less return measurements, we have estimated <br /> <br />consumptive use by applying widely used consumptive use indices to the known <br /> <br />acreages. These consumptive use figures have been derived both empiricallv <br /> <br />and experimentally Ly various experts in this field and are based on the <br /> <br />climate, growing season, class of land, type of crop and relative efficiencies <br /> <br />of use. <br /> <br />Transbasin exports are accurately measured quantities. Since there <br /> <br />are no returns from these diversions to the basin of origin, it is relatively <br /> <br />easy to measure the depletions continuously with standard water measurement <br /> <br />and recording devices. All such diversions of any magnitude are measured. <br /> <br />. <br />