Year Awarded:  2019

Year Authorized: 2025

Colorado Counties: Delta

Lead Federal Agency: United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service

Cooperating Agencies: USDOI - Bureau of Reclamation and USDOI - Bureau of Land Management

Sponsors: Colorado River District (CRD)

Project Description

The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), with the project sponsor, the Colorado River District (CRD), is proposing to partially fund through the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act (Public Law [PL] 83-566), the Supplemental Lower Gunnison Watershed Project (Project) in Delta County, Colorado. This project is intended to increase irrigation water conveyance efficiency and reduce the contribution of salts and selenium to the Lower Gunnison River, and subsequently to the Colorado River.  These project objectives will be accomplished by piping about 13,000 feet of the Fire Mountain Canal, building a new regulating reservoir, and installing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems in the North Fork subwatershed. SCADA components will also be installed in the Crawford subwatershed.  The estimated total project installation cost is $13,227,000, with $10,158,000 of that cost coming from Federal funds. 

NEPA Analysis

NRCS, as the lead federal agency, has completed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis in the form of a Watershed Plan and Environmental Assessment (Plan-EA) to analyze impacts to the environment from this project. A formal public review of the Draft Plan-EA occurred May - June 2024. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and the Final Plan-EA for the Project were published in October 2024

Current Status

NRCS authorized Federal assistance for installing the Lower Gunnison Project in April 2025. The Colorado River District will lead implementation efforts.  The design and construction phases will begin when the Federal share of the required funds are appropriated and allocated to the project.

Electronic versions of the documents may be downloaded from links below under Project Documents.

Project Documents

Contact Information

For further project information please contact:

Blongshia Lindsay
USDA NRCS – Colorado State Office
PO Box 25426
Denver, CO 80225-0426
Phone: 719-600-4710
Email: Blonshia.Lindsay@usda.gov