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<br />CHAPTER III - AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND <br />ENV1RONMENTALCONSEQUENCES <br /> <br />General <br /> <br />This chapter discusses resources associated with the Colorado River that could be affected by the <br />proposed action of providing fish passage at the GVIC Diversion Dam, During preparation of <br />this EA, input was received from the GVIC, other water users, resource agencies, citizens, and <br />other parties (see Chapter IV on Consultation and Coordination for further details), <br /> <br />Overview <br /> <br />The project is located in Mesa County, Colorado along the Colorado River. The largest town in <br />the area is Grand Junction, founded in 1881, The Rio Grande Railroad extended into the area in <br />1887 and, soon afterward, major irrigation of the valley began. Private irrigation facilities were <br />first constructed, and in the early 1900's a major Reclamation irrigation project, the Grand Valley <br />Project, was constructed. Although agriculture remains important in the valley today, a number <br />oflight manufacturing and service industries have influenced the economy. Mesa County has a <br />population of approximately 110,000. Major occupations in the area include services, retail <br />stores, government employment, and manufacturing. The upstream limit of consideration in this <br />report is the town of Rifle in Garfield County. This town has around 5,500 residents involved in <br />agriculture, mining and services. The project area is semi-arid, although surrounding mesas and <br />mountains support aspen and spruce-fir forests. The Colorado River in the project area has been <br />significantly changed due to water uses, infringement by railroads, gravel operations, highways, <br />and bridges, and by flood control dikes and channelization, <br /> <br />Vegetation and Land Use <br /> <br />The Grand Valley remains primarily an agricultural area, dominated by orchards, vineyards, and <br />row crops. The Colorado River continues to support narrow strips of riparian vegetation of <br />cottonwood, willows, and the introduced tamarisk and Russian olive, There is very little riparian <br />vegetation in the immediate construction impact area, There are several mature cottonwood trees <br />that would be avoided by the construction activities. Lands in the immediate construction area <br />are used for irrigation diversion purposes, and a residence with a small farm, <br /> <br />Under the No Action alternative, there would be no change in vegetation or land use. Under the <br />preferred alternative, temporary disturbance in present land use (on less than 5 acres) would occur <br />while hauling materials to construct the pools and riffles along the fish passage. Precautions <br />would be taken to prevent impact to large trees (mostly native cottonwood and introduced <br />Russian olive) that exist at the sites, Some grasses and forbs would be lost in a 1-2 acre area <br />through soil compaction, but revegetation efforts should rapidly mitigate this loss. There are no <br /> <br />15 <br />