| OCR Text |
Show and increased employment opportunity caused by anticipated increases in travel along the Interstate Highway System. The projected increases in development of irrigated land in the Little Colorado Subregion is attrib- utable to small new irrigation development on Indian lands in McKinley County, Hew Mexico. The most significant increase in land requirements, resulting from the use of the modified OBE-ERS projected level of development for the Region, is for irrigated cropland and urban land. Projected land require- ment for livestock grazing is the only use which decreases using the modified projections, and this decrease is minor. The remainder of the land use requirements either remain unchanged or show only slight increases with the modified projections. Using either set of projections (modified or unmodified OBE-ERS), there are sufficient suitable lands for each land use. The effect of the differences between the two projections on the framework plan is minor. The difference in the water depletion require- ments for all uses in the Subregion is only ^0,000 acre-feet. Table 12 summarizes the regional demand for water and related func- tions and. services to satisfy the 1968 OBE-ERS projections. Comparisons of significant elements from the 1968 OBE-ERS projections and modified OBE-ERS projections are shown by percentages on Table 13. The modified OBE-ERS level of development would result in increases, above tha"t for the OBE-ERS level, in the depletion requirements for the years 1980 and 2020 amounting to 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively. The corresponding increase in the economic final demand for goods and services "would be 11 percent, and the labor requirement would be larger by 12 percent in year 1980. By year 2020, the modified projections would be 9 percent greater for economic final demand for goods and serv- ices, and labor requirements would be 7 percent greater than with the straight OBE-ERS projections. The 5 percent difference between the two projections for regional water requirements in 1980 would have no effect on the early action pro- gram, but would result in a reduction of ground-water overdraft from the 1.5 million acre-feet associated with the modified OBE-ERS projections to 1.1 miJJLion acre-feet. The need for an imported water supply by year 2000 would, remain unchanged. The regional portion of the importation could possibly be delayed a few years under the OBE-ERS projections, but a 5-year clelay would be about the maximum extent. With the uncertainties of projections 30 years in the future, and the many difficulties inherent in the planning and construction of a project of this magnitude, concern for such minor variance is unjustified at this time. As future studies are made, the projections will be updated periodically according to the most recent trends. 138 |
