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,CJifV ~ N N CD N DEVELOPMENT OF THE .~ATER SUPPLIES OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES IN COLORADO R. M, Gildersleeve, Chief Engineer Colorado Water Conservation. Board There are 355 miles of the main channel of the Arkansas River in the State of Colorado. The headwaters of the tributaries above Garden City, Kansas, are also situated in that State, with the exception of an area of about 150 square miles of Purgatoire River drainage which is in New Mexico. The origin of the main Arkansas River, at the junction of the three principal upper tributaries, is at an elevation of 9,440 feet above sea level. The river falls more than 6,000 feet in elevation before it flows into kansas. Average annual flows, as measured at gaging stations along the river, are: at Granite, 240,000 acre feet; at Salida, 440,000 acre feet; at Canon City, 515,000 acre feet; at Pueblo, 510,000 acre feet; at La Junta, 210,000 acre feet; at the Colorado - Kansas State line, 285,000 acre feet. About 55 percent of the mountain runoff occurs during the three months of May, June and July. The Arkansas River basin comprises more than one fourth of t.he total area of the State, and receives runoff from. 20 of the 52 peaks in Colo- rado of over 14,000 feet in elevation. However, the distribution of precipitation is such that the basin contains only about 7 percent of the State's water re- sources .. Estimates of the anginal production of runoff oi' the drainage area above the point where the main Arkansas River enters Kansas have varied between 1,100,000 and 1,300,,000 acre feet annually, on a longtime average basis. Since the average flow of the Arkansas River at the Colorado - Kansas State line has -beP..n approximately 285,000 acre feet per year, some 75 to 80 percent of the urigjoal runDi'f'i.s oonsumed in Colorado through the irrigation of approximately