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Chapter 1 Introduction BACKGROUND The Yampa River Basin The Yampa River drains an area of approximately 9,500 square miles in northwestern Colorado and south-central Wyoming and contributes an annual flow of 1.5 maf to the Green River at its confluence at Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument. In Colorado, the Yampa River basin comprises most of Moffat and Routt counties and small parts of Rio Blanco, Garfield and Grand counties. Sweetwater and Carbon counties in Wyoming are drained by the Little Snake River, a tributary that enters the Yampa River at the eastern edge of the National Monument. Figures 1-1 and 1-2 show the general location of the Yampa River basin and some key geographical features of the basin above the Little Snake River confluence. Most of the flow of the Yampa River is produced by melting snow in the higher elevations at the eastern and southern edges of the basin. Summer precipitation augments snowmelt only slightly. As a result, the natural flows of the river are highly seasonal, typically reaching a peak in late spring and declining considerably by late summer to minimum levels in late fall or winter. Roughly two-thirds of the annual discharge of the river, as measured at the Maybell gage, occurs in the months of May and June. 1 The settlement of the basin began in the mid-19th century. Ranching and agriculture remain the dominant economic activities in the region, although coal mining and recreation are becoming more important. The largest use of water in the basin is for irrigation of crops, hay land, and pastures. It has been estimated that irrigation consumes roughly 80,000 of of water annually, with other uses, thermal-electric power generation being the largest, consuming an additional 30,000 af. Total reservoir storage capacity in the basin is roughly 125,000 af, though only a fraction of this capacity is used regularly. Current water use in the basin consume only about 10% of the flow of the river. Thus, in 1992, the hydrology of the Yampa River is not too different from what it was when the area was first settled. The Juniper Project Just after the end of World War II Reclamation began a comprehensive inventory of water development potential in the Colorado River basin. Included in this inventory was the identification of the potential Juniper Reservoir/Deadman Bench Canal, Maybell, and Cross Mountain projects on the Yampa River mainstem. Following the 1948 Upper Colorado River Compact and authorization of the Colorado River Storage Project (which included the Glen Canyon, Curecanti, Navajo, and Flaming Gorge projects), these Yampa River projects were designated as possible participating projects and were earmarked for further study. River District filed for water rights for the Juniper project shortly after the post-compact studies of the Yampa and neighboring White River basins were completed by Reclamation in 1957. In 1962, River District was granted water rights for the project with a 1954 priority date. The location of the Juniper project is shown on Figure 1-2. 1-1