Uinta Basin Replacement Project
Encyclopedia
In Section 203 of the Central Utah Project Completion Act
, the United States Congress authorized a federally-authorized and funded replacement project to replace the Uinta and Upalco Units of the Central Utah Project
(CUP) which were not constructed. The replacement project is the Uinta Basin Replacement Project (UBRP). The UBRP will provide: 2500 acre.ft of irrigation water; 3000 acre.ft of municipal and industrial water; reduced wilderness impacts; increased instream flows; and improved recreation. Design work began in 2002. Construction began in 2004 and is anticipated to be completed in 2011. The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is responsible for construction. The United States Department of the Interior oversees funding and compliance with law and environmental regulation.
are the only major mountain range running east to west in North America
. The Uinta Basin lies to the south of the Uinta Mountains and is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from those mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River
--a tributary of the Colorado River
.
The basin is the location of the Ute Tribe
of the Uinta and Ouray Reservation (Tribe) which is commonly referred to as the Northern Ute Tribe, as well as the cities of Duchesne, Roosevelt, and Vernal. When oil prices are sufficiently high to overcome the cost of transportation to areas outside the basin, the area’s oil industry roars to life (as it has in the past two years). Ordinarily, agriculture (chiefly cattle operations) is the lifeblood of the basin economy; and, in the basin, irrigation is the lifeblood of agriculture. It is important to note also that wilderness designation protects much of the Uinta Mountains. The mountains and associated streams are an important ecological resource.
At the sabres game the fan in the section 203 seat 4 said the above
The UBRP is founded on and entwined with other water development in the basin. Key stages in that development are the establishment of the Northern Ute Reservation, homesteading and early water development, the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project, the Moon Lake Project, the CUP as originally planned (with the Uinta and Upalco Units), and the current UBRP.
In 1956, congress created the Colorado River Storage Project
, authorizing the CUP (as well as other Reclamation projects). The CUP provided for the trans-basin diversion of Uinta Basin water to the Wasatch Front
. The Wasatch Front is the most populous area of Utah and includes Provo
and Salt Lake City. The project mitigated for the trans-basin diversion by creating the Uinta and Upalco Units. These units would have provided new storage in the Uinta Basin--on the Uinta and Lake Fork Rivers respectively.
For a variety of reasons, the Uinta and Upalco Units were never constructed. Section 203 (a) of the Central Utah Project Completion Act authorized funding for UBRP—a project intended to provide similar benefits, in some measure, to those that were promised by the units that were not constructed. Originally, the UBRP project planned under the authority of Section 203 (a) was to serve both Indian and non-Indian needs using Indian and non-Indian water. Although planning continued for several years, the Tribe withdrew its support at the eleventh hour--as contracts were being executed. The departure of the Tribe made a reformulation of the plan necessary. Eventually, a scaled-down version was developed. The scaled-down project intentionally avoided interference with tribal water rights, lands, and interests.
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District (District) is the sponsor and entity responsible for repayment of the federal obligation associated with the Bonneville Unit of the CUP and UBRP.
Perhaps nowhere in the Basin is this layering and the accompanying actual and potential conflict more focused than the Lake Fork River. The river begins in the High Uintas Wilderness
area and feeds thirteen small, high-elevation lakes-turned-reservoirs (High Mountain Lakes). It then provides early-priority Tribe flow rights though a portion of the UIIP, feeds Reclamation’s Moon Lake Project (serving non-Indian irrigators), and provides additional irrigation water by exchange with Starvation Reservoir (a CUP feature). Because it diverts Lake Fork River water, integrating UBRP into this already complex and contentious water environment was difficult and problematic.
The Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment for UBRP were published in 2001. As a partial replacement for the Uinta and Upalco Units, UBRP is intended to serve the following purposes: stabilizing the aging and unsafe High Mountain Lakes on the Lake Fork River drainage and restoring ecological values compatible with the High Uintas Wilderness; providing replacement water for the late season irrigation water stored in the High Mountain Lakes; providing 3000 acre.ft of water per year to Roosevelt City for municipal and industrial (M&I) purposes; providing 2500 acre.ft of water per year to Lake Fork River irrigators; facilitating improved water resources management and water conservation in the Uinta Basin by increasing water efficiency, enhancing beneficial use, and developing water storage; and enhancing environmental, fish, wildlife, and recreation resources.
The project purposes are to be accomplished by construction (or upgrade) of the following facilities.
Central Utah Project Completion Act
The Central Utah Project Completion Act , enacted on October 30, 1992, removed responsibility for completing the Central Utah Project , a federal water project, from the United States Bureau of Reclamation...
, the United States Congress authorized a federally-authorized and funded replacement project to replace the Uinta and Upalco Units of the Central Utah Project
Central Utah Project
The Central Utah Project is a United States federal water project. It was authorized for construction under the Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11, 1956 as a participating project...
(CUP) which were not constructed. The replacement project is the Uinta Basin Replacement Project (UBRP). The UBRP will provide: 2500 acre.ft of irrigation water; 3000 acre.ft of municipal and industrial water; reduced wilderness impacts; increased instream flows; and improved recreation. Design work began in 2002. Construction began in 2004 and is anticipated to be completed in 2011. The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is responsible for construction. The United States Department of the Interior oversees funding and compliance with law and environmental regulation.
Description of the Uinta Basin
The Uinta MountainsUinta Mountains
The Uinta Mountains are a high chain of mountains in northeastern Utah and extreme northwestern Colorado in the United States. A subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are unusual for being the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west, and lie approximately east of Salt...
are the only major mountain range running east to west in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The Uinta Basin lies to the south of the Uinta Mountains and is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from those mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
--a tributary of the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
.
The basin is the location of the Ute Tribe
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...
of the Uinta and Ouray Reservation (Tribe) which is commonly referred to as the Northern Ute Tribe, as well as the cities of Duchesne, Roosevelt, and Vernal. When oil prices are sufficiently high to overcome the cost of transportation to areas outside the basin, the area’s oil industry roars to life (as it has in the past two years). Ordinarily, agriculture (chiefly cattle operations) is the lifeblood of the basin economy; and, in the basin, irrigation is the lifeblood of agriculture. It is important to note also that wilderness designation protects much of the Uinta Mountains. The mountains and associated streams are an important ecological resource.
At the sabres game the fan in the section 203 seat 4 said the above
Water Development in the Uinta Basin
Interests competing for Uinta Basin water include: non-Indian irrigators, the Tribe, the cities, the oil industry, and the natural environment. All water development in the basin has been intended to serve one or more of these interests.The UBRP is founded on and entwined with other water development in the basin. Key stages in that development are the establishment of the Northern Ute Reservation, homesteading and early water development, the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project, the Moon Lake Project, the CUP as originally planned (with the Uinta and Upalco Units), and the current UBRP.
- The Northern Ute Reservation - The Northern Ute Reservation was established in 1861 and tribal water rights associated with the creation of the reservation share that filing date. To date, the Tribe has not fully asserted its water right claims. An adjudication of Uinta Basin water rights begun by the Utah state engineer in 1956 was placed in abeyance while the Tribe, the State of Utah, and the Secretary of the Interior negotiated a water rights compact. These negotiations, in one form or another, have continued for over forty years, although progress toward agreement has occurred since 2007.
- Homesteading and Early Water Development - The reservation was opened for homesteading by non-Indians in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Indian and non-Indian irrigation systems were constructed, including the construction of the High Mountain Lakes.
- The Uinta Indian Irrigation ProjectUinta Indian Irrigation ProjectThe Uinta Indian Irrigation Project is the principal Indian irrigation project in the Uintah Basin. The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs designed and constructed this project. By 1935, the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project was irrigating over of Indian land...
- The principal Indian irrigation project in the Basin is the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project. The Bureau of Indian AffairsBureau of Indian AffairsThe Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(BIA) designed and constructed this project. By 1935, it was irrigating over 77000 acres (311.6 km²) of Indian land. Today, the UIIP continues to serve Indian and non-Indian irrigators in the Lake Fork drainage and elsewhere in the Basin. It continues to be owned and operated by BIA.
- The Moon Lake ProjectMoon Lake ProjectIn the 1930s, the United States Bureau of Reclamation designed and constructed the Moon Lake Project on the Lake Fork River. The Moon Lake Water Users Association, a private irrigation company, operates and maintains the Moon Lake Project on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation.-External links:*...
- In the 1930’s, the Bureau of Reclamation designed and constructed the Moon Lake Project on the Lake Fork River. The Association operates and maintains the Moon Lake Project on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation and will operate and maintain the enlarged Big Sand Wash Dam and Reservoir.
- The Central Utah Project –
In 1956, congress created the Colorado River Storage Project
Colorado River Storage Project
The Colorado River Storage Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation project designed to oversee the development of the upper Colorado River basin...
, authorizing the CUP (as well as other Reclamation projects). The CUP provided for the trans-basin diversion of Uinta Basin water to the Wasatch Front
Wasatch Front
The Wasatch Front is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from approximately Santaquin in the south to Brigham City in the north...
. The Wasatch Front is the most populous area of Utah and includes Provo
Provo
Provo was a Dutch counterculture movement in the mid-1960s that focused on provoking violent responses from authorities using non-violent bait. It was preceded by the nozem movement and followed by the hippie movement...
and Salt Lake City. The project mitigated for the trans-basin diversion by creating the Uinta and Upalco Units. These units would have provided new storage in the Uinta Basin--on the Uinta and Lake Fork Rivers respectively.
For a variety of reasons, the Uinta and Upalco Units were never constructed. Section 203 (a) of the Central Utah Project Completion Act authorized funding for UBRP—a project intended to provide similar benefits, in some measure, to those that were promised by the units that were not constructed. Originally, the UBRP project planned under the authority of Section 203 (a) was to serve both Indian and non-Indian needs using Indian and non-Indian water. Although planning continued for several years, the Tribe withdrew its support at the eleventh hour--as contracts were being executed. The departure of the Tribe made a reformulation of the plan necessary. Eventually, a scaled-down version was developed. The scaled-down project intentionally avoided interference with tribal water rights, lands, and interests.
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District (District) is the sponsor and entity responsible for repayment of the federal obligation associated with the Bonneville Unit of the CUP and UBRP.
The Uinta Basin Replacement Project
Each stage in the Uinta Basin water development brought with it new water facilities. Each stage served a different bundle of water right interests and a different set of constituents. The result is a complex layering of economic interests, water rights, land ownership, management objectives, and politics.Perhaps nowhere in the Basin is this layering and the accompanying actual and potential conflict more focused than the Lake Fork River. The river begins in the High Uintas Wilderness
High Uintas Wilderness
The High Uintas Wilderness is a wilderness area located in northeastern Utah, United States. The wilderness covers the Uinta Mountains, encompassing parts of Duchesne and Summit counties. Designated as a wilderness in 1984, the area is located within parts of Ashley National Forest and Wasatch...
area and feeds thirteen small, high-elevation lakes-turned-reservoirs (High Mountain Lakes). It then provides early-priority Tribe flow rights though a portion of the UIIP, feeds Reclamation’s Moon Lake Project (serving non-Indian irrigators), and provides additional irrigation water by exchange with Starvation Reservoir (a CUP feature). Because it diverts Lake Fork River water, integrating UBRP into this already complex and contentious water environment was difficult and problematic.
The Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment for UBRP were published in 2001. As a partial replacement for the Uinta and Upalco Units, UBRP is intended to serve the following purposes: stabilizing the aging and unsafe High Mountain Lakes on the Lake Fork River drainage and restoring ecological values compatible with the High Uintas Wilderness; providing replacement water for the late season irrigation water stored in the High Mountain Lakes; providing 3000 acre.ft of water per year to Roosevelt City for municipal and industrial (M&I) purposes; providing 2500 acre.ft of water per year to Lake Fork River irrigators; facilitating improved water resources management and water conservation in the Uinta Basin by increasing water efficiency, enhancing beneficial use, and developing water storage; and enhancing environmental, fish, wildlife, and recreation resources.
The project purposes are to be accomplished by construction (or upgrade) of the following facilities.
- High Mountain Lakes - The stabilization of the thirteen High Mountain Lakes will eliminate the reservoir storage and will return the lakes to their natural levels. As a result, flows originating in the High Mountain Lakes’ watersheds will return to natural hydraulic runoff patterns and thereby restore fishery and recreational resources in the High Mountain Lakes. In addition, the wilderness impacts associated with operation and maintenance of the High Mountain Lakes will be eliminated.
- Big Sand Wash Diversion and Feeder Pipeline - Construction of the Big Sand Wash Diversion and Feeder Pipeline has been completed. The Diversion diverts flows from the Lake Fork River into the Feeder Pipeline. The Feeder Pipeline transports the water to Big Sand Wash Reservoir—an existing off-stream reservoir that is being enlarged as part of the project.
- Enlarged Big Sand Wash Reservoir - The enlargement of the Big Sand Wash Reservoir (by raising the level of the dam and associated dikes and saddle dams) will provide additional water storage capacity and regulation capability. The enlarged reservoir will allow for the storage of water that had been stored in the High Mountain Lakes. This transfer also results in improved instream flow in certain reaches of the Lake Fork River and its principal tributary—the Yellowstone River. The water stored in the enlarged reservoir will serve irrigation and M&I purposes. Increasing the height of the new dam is being accomplished by removing about two-thirds of the downstream side of the old dam, excavating a new keyway immediately downstream of the remaining structure, constructing the new dam, and integrating the remnants of the old dam into the upstream fill of the new, taller structure.
- Big Sand Wash – Roosevelt Pipeline - The Big Sand Wash – Roosevelt Pipeline will deliver project M&I water to Roosevelt, UtahRoosevelt, UtahRoosevelt is a city in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 4,299 at the 2000 census.The proper pronunciation of the city's name is based on how President Theodore Roosevelt pronounced his name: according to the man himself, "pronounced as if it was spelled...
as well as project irrigation water to the lower portions of Lake Fork drainage systems.