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<br />0010P <br /> <br />irrigation survey included questions about irrigation organizations. The following statements <br /> <br />summarize the situation westwide. <br /> <br />. In 1978, less than 10 percent of westwide total agricultural acreage is irrigated, <br />including range land; <br /> <br />. although large organizations are important to western water development, overall only <br />56.4 percent of irrigated acreage is served by formal organizations: mutual irrigation <br />companies, public irrigation districts, USBR-operated projects, state and local governments; <br /> <br />. states in which groundwater supplies a large share of total water supply have smaller <br />shares of their. irrigated acreage served by. formal organizations; <br /> <br />. between 1920 and 1978, irrigated acreage served by mutuals, irrigation districts, and <br />USBR projects grew by 24 mi1Iion acres, 9.0 mi1Iion acres, and 5.3 million acres, <br />respectively; <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />. public irrigation districts serve 54.8 percent of irrigated acres served by formal <br />organizations, mutuals 329 percent, USBR-operated projects 1.6 percent, local <br />governments 1.1 percent, and other agencies 9.5 percent; <br /> <br />. USBR projects are associated with relatively intensive water use, conveying 5S.3 percent <br />of water to only 44.7 percent of irrigated acreage served by formal organizations. <br /> <br />Potential Magnitude of Agricultural Water Transfer$ <br /> <br />With the continued demise of water development projects (witness the formal EP A veto <br /> <br />of Two Forks), continued growth in the west must turn to water reallocation and conservation. <br /> <br />Forecasting the potential magnitude of reallocation of water from agricultural to municipal use <br /> <br />is a daunting task. The key points of an article that identifies the rough magnitude of water <br />involved are the following:4 <br /> <br />4 See "Evaporating Water Markets?: New Contingencies for Urban Water Use," Water <br />Strategist 11, 16 (July 1989). <br /> <br />6 <br />