1184 
Cost of Water Per Acre 
C. J. BLANCHARD, 
Statistician United States Reclamation 
Service 
1. The cost per acre of water rights 
or of water for irrigation in the arid 
region, under the present conditions of 
construction, is far higher than is usual- 
ly appreciated. During earlier decades, 
before any considerable number of large 
irrigation canals had been built, it was 
a relatively simple and inexpensive mat- 
ter for farmers to join together and build 
small canals that could be enlarged as 
the demand for water increased. All 
such easily available opportunities, how- 
ever, have been utilized and development 
has proceeded to a point where on most 
of the recent irrigation systems it has 
been necessary to provide storage, thus 
adding materially to the cost. 
2. There has also been a notable in- 
crease in the cost of labor and of ma- 
terials used in construction. This con- 
dition has been pointed out in various 
hearings before Congress, notably in the 
series before the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee of the House of Representatives 
at the time of the granting of the $20,- 
000,000 loans. It is there shown, notably 
in a statement submitted by Representa- 
tive Mondell that one of the arguments 
for increase of the reclamation fund was 
in the fact that common labor had ad- 
vanced from the time of the preparation 
of the plans for works in 1903 and 1904 
from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, and that 
the efficiency of such labor had fallen 
off in greater proportion. Costs were al- 
so affected by the increased price of ma- 
terials and equipment. 
3. The following table gives in con- 
densed form lists of some of the recently 
constructed and proposed larger private 
projects and Carey-act projects. These 
figures, obtained from printed reports of 
state engineers and public data show that 
on over 90 modern irrigation systems 
being built by private or corporate capi- 
tal the cost per acre averages nearly $53. 
This cost does not include the annual 
cost for operation and maintenance. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
4. The cost to the settler is increased 
by the fact that payment is made on 
most of these projects in instalments 
bearing interest at 6 per cent or even 
more. The total payments made for such 
a water right with simple interest at 6 
per cent would be about $70.50 per acre 
on the basis of ten equal annual instal- 
ments of the principal as compared to 
$53 without interest. 
COST OF PRIVATE IRRIGATION PROJECTS 
Cast of 
water 
right 
Name of Project Acreage charge 
or Company in project per acre? 
Colorado-— 
ZAmity Canal .......+.. $0,000 $100 
*Beaver Land & I. Co..... 20,000 175 
Catlin Canal ...... 25,000 100 
Colorado Co- operative Co. 5,200 60 
Denver Resv. & I, Co... 200,000 45 
Bast Palisade I. Dist... 645 63 
SPort Lyon Camal ....... 70,000 100 
4Grand Valley Camal .... 40,000 60 
Greely Poudre I. Co..... 12 5000 45 
Mesa Co, Irrigation Dist. 2568 73 
Orchard Mesa I. Dist. 9,122 119 
Otero Irrigation District 20,000 40 
Palisade Irrigation Dist. 6,000 41 
Paradox Valley I. Co.. 30 "00 0 45 
S5Pueblo-Rocky Ford I. Co. 100, 000 150 
SRedlands I. & P. Co. . 5000 100 
Routt Co. Dev. Co....... 39,000 45 
S. Palisade Hahts I. Dist. 700 127 
Montana-— 
Conrad Land & Water Co. ...... 4() 
Great Falls Land & I. Co. 36,000 50 
Nebraska— 
"Belmont Canal & I. Dist. 20, 000 25 
Tristate Canal ......6., 0,000 49 
New Meaico-—- 
French Land & I. Co..... 40,000 50 
Oregon—— 
Bonanza Project see enes 20,000 39 
Hagle Valley .......06. 21,700 0 
“Turnish nee vere eens 3,000 60 
Paradise .....cc weaves 100,000 60 
Willamette Valley . cre eee 20,000 50 
South Dakota— 
ed Water I. Ass’n..... 4,000 40 
Utah— 
Provo Reservoir ...... 12,000 80 
Utah Lake Pumping.... 8,000 40 
Washington— 
Cascade Canal Co....... 10,000 50 
Congdon Canal Co....... 4,200 121 
Kennewick Canal ...... 14,000 163 
Lower Yakima I. Co.. 12,500 129 
Selah-Moxee ........+:5 7,000 86 
Selah galley Dev, Co.. 10,000 150 
Union Gap I. Co. ..... . 5,000 135 
Washington I. Co. ...... 50,000 46 
1Hngineers' estimates where project is pro- 
posed or incomplete. 
stimated at from $75 to $150 per acre. 
Inet ius land. 
®Hstimated at from $75 to $150 per acre. 
Per miner’s inch, 
S Includes land. 
°Histimated at from $65 to $150 per acre. 
™For river rights only. Purchaser of Path- 
finder Reservoir water will increase this to $35. 
§ Estimated at from $50 to $70 per acre. 
®* Estimated at from $40 to $50 per acre. 
