Quantification Methods Developed in Conjunction with the Water Use Inventory on BLM Administered Lands in Arizona

Abstract

Standard methodologies have recently been developed to quantify water sources occurring on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona. These water sources typically consist of springs, stockponds, reservoirs and other small bodies of water, and small streamflows of less than 1 c.f.s. (0.025 m³ /sec). Increasing demands for these waters as well as numerous past, on- going, and pending activities to define and adjudicate water rights necessitate that they be consistently and accurately quantified and their uses estimated. Standard methodologies to meet these requirements were essentially nonexistent within the BLM at the time the inventory of these water sources began. Emphasis has been placed on the application of simple and practical procedures based on generally accepted hydrologic principles. These methodologies will be used for quantifying an estimated 4,000 water sources on federally administered lands throughout Arizona. The methods may also be used to inventory the approximately 100,000 water sources located on federally administered lands in the other ten western states.