| OCR Text |
Show It is estimated that transfer of farmland to urban and industrial uses will result in some water being transferred from agricultural to municipal uses. The major municipal water development would be partic- ipation in a regional water importation program. Completion of the Southern Nevada Water Project facilities will meet the water needs of Las Vegas until about year 2000. A 100 million gallons per day desali- nation plant for treatment of municipal wastes is scheduled for Clark County in the 198l to 2000 time frame, after which a new supply will be needed. Desalting facilities having capacities totaling 123 million gallons per day are included in the program to treat brackish ground water for municipal uses in 9 communities, most of which are not identi- fied. An import of 7,500 acre-feet from the San Juan River is included to supply water for municipal uses in Gallup, New Mexico. Multipurpose regulatory storage facilities in upstream areas would meet the needs o:f many of the smaller communities. Continued development of ground-water supplies, with desalting where necessary, will meet the needs of most of the other small communities. Irrigation and Drainage It is assumed that rehabilitation of existing irrigation conveyance systems, where required, will have been completed by 198O. It is esti- mated that during the period 1981 to 2020, about 176,000 acres of pres- ently irrigated lands will be occupied by urban development. During this period, a net gain of 12^,000 acres in irrigated area is predicted. To effectively utilize the imported water and to provide water to new lands, additional conveyance systems to serve about 730,000 acres will be provided. Portions of these lands are now irrigated exclusively from ground water. The continuing program for installation of measures for irrigation water management on 1.6 million acres is provided to achieve the pro- jected efficiency of onfarm irrigation water use and to maintain the productive capacity of the land. With the addition of imported water supplies and projected increases in irrigated lands after 1981, the plan provides for new drainage facilities to serve an additional 120,000 acres by year 2020. Recreation The continuing (1981 to 2020) recreation program will require $858 million for the acquisition of 1*6,000 acres of land to satisfy projected needs for 23^ million recreation days. Multipurpose reservoirs in the Gila Subregion would make available about 39,000 surface acres of water for recreational use. There woulcl remain an unmet need of almost 1*5,000 acres of water by the year 2020 to satisfy boating opportunity. Canalside parks constructed in conjunc- tion with the Arizona Aqueduct would partially meet recreation needs. 101 |
