Show county planning board asks for irrigation project would disert water from dolores ri river ver to utah mesas plan is feasible application has been made by the san juan county planning board for to construct a storage reservoir on the dolores river to tb impound water to irrigate several hundred thousand acres of utah lard since the application was made it has been found that a complete s survey r of the project was made more than twenty years ago and that th earlier has been checked for error by a private company since since the first survey was made the later report is extremely favorable even tho estimates of 0 runoff run off are reduced to a minimum the project proposes the building of a storage lam dam 12 miles below the tc town wn ot of dolores colo on the dole acres res river this dam impound acre feet of water which supplemented by the regular flow of the river make available in excess of acre feet of water during the irrigation season twelve miles of canal would leal lead to a tunnel feet long win diversion canals would lead from the mouth ot of the tunnel directly to the land to be irrigated Gaug ings of the flow of the id dolores river made by the government show sho ample rim runoff run off to supply in excess 0 f acre feet of water less lessan loan second feet of water is now appropriated from the dolores tie the remaining water wate available for irrigation ot of new lands land makes possible the reclaiming of vast tracts of land for purposes of intensive farming fanning both in utah and western colorado I 1 lp it is estimated that seepage in the amount of from 15 to 20 per cent of the original alov aed by farmers of the highlands child be recovered for use on the lower lands all the seepage from lands irrigated in the dove creek area and westward would flow into utah jor for use here callon cahon and mustang mesas and the bluff bench would benefit thereby the seepage angle due to the ex client drainage from the high mesas Is said to be unusually important as water vater thus derived will compensate for that lost in transit and by evaporation which ordinarily amounts to considerable the he survey originally ended at what is known as the pour off at those districts which would be served are bug point cedar point pearson point and a part of boulder comprising the higher lands and cahon cabon and mustang mesas and them the bluff bench the lower portions with the possibility ot of reaching the banding area if deen canyon cross continued on last p pas i 1 iv l mj rj COUNTY PLANNING BOARD ASKS FOR HUGE irrigation PROJECT continue Con continued tinne d iro A om m page 1 11 inks can be overcome the benefit to the districts which w would d be served and the t lii cirii territory to rk adjacent d 4 c all should hould the project carry to completion 1 n p ae t i on would bb AC tremendous winter apinter 1 freed bior n nearby e a r li livestock v estock producers would g greatly re t 1 ai aid 1 the h e in industry du alry to say noth nothing fing K of crops which could id be grown for shipment A great stimulus would be given the ti transportation an tation industry thousands of 0 f new families would be needed to utilize the now idle lands altho aitho the planning board asked for 0 only facts disclosed by thel the survey reports indicate the necessity for the expenditure of a much libater sum estimates are as fol I 1 sio storage rage dam I 1 canyon canal tunnel Vis distributing system 2000 TOTAL |