Grand Valley water management project
Date
2004-10
Authors
Uilenberg, Brent R., author
Nonnan, Robert E., author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Abstract
The Grand Valley Water Management Project (Project) consists of irrigation system improvements which provide the ability to reduce irrigation diversions from the Colorado River. The concept behind the Project was originally developed through a study conducted under the Bureau of Reclamation's General Investigations Program in cooperation with the Grand Valley Water Users Association and California Polytechnic State University. The Project was subsequently adopted by the Upper Colorado River Recovery Implementation Program as a key component in the overall strategy to provide flow augmentation to critical habitat reaches of the Colorado River. The Project concept was previously reported in a paper presented at the October 1998 USCID Conference. Project performance and cost effectiveness is exceeding expectations. When totally completed, the Project will conserve water at a unit cost of approximately $ 9 per acre-foot per year. This paper provides a brief background on the technical aspects of the Project but primarily focuses on actual performance and institutional agreements required to implement the Project. Potential future applications of this highly cost effective concept to address environmental and/or human water uses are also briefly discussed.
Description
Presented during the USCID water management conference held on October 13-16, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme of the conference was "Water rights and related water supply issues."