Missouri River Tributaries, Colorado Cooperative River Basin Study: Potential for Irrigation System Improvements

Excerpts from the report: The Colorado Water Conservation Board, acting for the State of Colorado requested the Department of Agriculture to conduct a cooperative river basin study of the Missouri River Tributaries within Colorado. This included the North and South Platte River Basins along with the Republican River Basin. It was agreed that the objective of this cooperative study would be to address the water resource problems found in individual irrigation systems and to develop alternatives that will improve their productivity, water use efficiency and water management. A sample of representative irrigation systems was used in the study. Twenty-three systems were selected for detailed study. In each of these systems, the canal company and other local officials were interviewed. A list of problems was developed. Alternatives were developed to address the problems identified. The study area contains all of the North and South Platte Rivers and Republican River drainages within Colorado. Figure 1 shows the location of the study area. The Platte River drainage contains both the North and South Platte River Basins. The Republican River drainage includes the Frenchman, Arikaree, South Fork of the Arikaree, North and South Forks of the Republican, and the Smoky Hill River drainages. The total area is approximately 19,121,000 acres. Table B-l in Appendix B shows the land use in the major basins. Over 1,580,000 acres are irrigated within the study area. Of this area 938,000 acres are located in the South Platte River Basin, 105,000 acres in the North Platte River Basin and the remaining 537,000 acres located in the Republican River Basin.