From the Delta County Independent (Hank Lohmeyer):
Five cubic feet-per-second of decreed irrigation water which has been irrigating crops for more than a century along Sawmill Mesa Road on the pioneer family Obergfell farm will one day soon be producing electricity as well. The water, which flows in the Uncompahgre Water Users Association F&F Lateral, falls 105 feet from atop California Mesa to the irrigation works of Sandra Tarr, who uses it to water 100 acres of corn and hay along the Gunnison River. At the bottom of that 105-foot fall, Sandra, her husband Pete, and her daughter Janell Dawson are planning to install a small electricity-producing turbine. The turbine will generate electricity, an estimated 15 to 30 kilowatts – more than they expect can be used by three nearby homes of family members. The Tarrs said they are currently in discussions with DMEA for purchase of their excess homemade electricity which, they estimate, will be available 24 hours per day during the eight months of the farm’s irrigating season.
The turbine will be installed on the farm’s headwater. Since the farm has a senior right and is located at the lateral’s end, the water will flow — creating electricity — throughout the irrigating season, even when Sandra is using it for her crops.
More hydroelectric coverage here.