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Irrigated Agriculture Reed Burkholder - March 24, 1997

Irrigated agriculture using water from the 4 lower Snake River dams amounts to 35,000 acres, all near Ice Harbor reservoir. Water is pumped from the top of the full reservoir to cropland 20-560 vertical feet above the surface of the reservoir.

Washington's total cropland is about 6,500,000 acres. The 35,000 irrigated acres which use Ice Harbor water amount to roughly 1/2 of 1% of Washington's total cropland.

State	Irrigated acres	Acres in Cropland	% Irrigated
California	7,571,000	8,017,000	94%
Nebraska	6,312,000	19,428,000	32%
Texas	4,912,000	21,574,000	23%
Idaho	3,260,000	4,799,000	68%
Colorado	3,170,000	8,348,000	38%
Arkansas	2,702,000	7,566,000	36%
Kansas	2,680,000	25,213,000	11%
Montana	1,978,000	13,941,000	14%
Washington	1,641,000	6,500,000	25%
Oregon	1,622,000	3,720,000	44%
Arizona	956,000	961,000	99%
Missouri	709,000	12,529,000	6%
Oklahoma	512,000	9,996,000	5%
South Dakota	371,000	15,458,000	2%
North Dakota	187,000	24,444,000	<1%
Iowa	116,000	23,414,000	<1%
Kentucky	28,000	4,977,000	<1%

Source: Agricultual Statistics 1998, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Project	Irrigated acres
Minidoka-Palisades (Idaho)	1,059,397
Boise (Idaho)	321,921
Columbia Basin (Washington)	526,602
Yakima (Washington)	369,921
Deschutes (Oregon)	83,975
Owyhee (Oregon & Idaho)	103,185

Source: 1991 Summary Statistics, Water, Land, and Related Data U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation