PUB00089

• Year: 1980
• Title: Upper Colorado Resource Study: Colorado and Utah - Concluding Report May 1980
• CWCB Section: Water Conservation & Drought Planning
• Author: R. Keith Higginson, Commissioner
• Description: Study to determine expected increases of water needs for energy-related developments along White and Yampa Rivers
• Publications - Doc Type: Tech Report

CHAPTER II

INTRODUCTION

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to upper Milk Creek, a tributary of the Yampa River, by a system of
conduits and tunnels. A reservoir would bave been constructed on Milk
Creek to regulate the water supply for irrigation of about 20,000 acres
of land in Axial Basin of the Yampa River. Powerplants were to be
established on Milk Creek and along the mainstems of the Yampa and Green
Rivers.

In September 1952 another unpublished study was prepared, also
called the White-Yampa Diversion Project. This study considered the
irrigation of 32,270 acres of land in the White River Basin and the
Axial Basin of the Yampa drainage. The proposed storage, conveyance,
and power facilities were much the same as in the 1946 study.

Projects involving diversion of water from one basin to the other
were not the only ones receiving early attention.

In February 1957, a reconnaissance report was published entitled the
Yampa-White Pro;ect, in which a plan was presented that covered most of
the Yampa River Basin and a large part of the White River Basin. The
project as presented was divided into two divisions, the Craig Division
in the Yampa River Basin and the Meeker Division in the White River Basin.

The Craig division consisted of the Wessels, Hayden Mesa, Great North-
ern, Juniper, and Two Bar Units. The Wessels Unit was a proposed irri-
gation development for 6,750 acres of land along the Yampa ~iver near the
towns of Steamhoat Springs and Oak Creek. The Hayden Mesa Unit was a
potential irrigation development for 22,940 acres of land situated along
the south side of a 35-mile stretch of the Yampa River between Steamboat
Springs and Craig. The Great Northern Unit was intended to provide irri-
gation to 10,660 acres of land north of the Yampa River between Craig
and Hayden. The Juniper Unit would have provided irrigation water to
101,280 acres of land, including 32,920 acres in the Lower Yampa and White
River Basins in Colorado and 68,360 acres in the White River Basin in
Utah. The Ute Indian lands along the lower White River were included in
the Utah acreage. Power production was also a tentative consideration
of the Juniper Unit plan. The Two Bar Unit proposed irrigation for 4,260
acres of land along the Yampa and Little Snake Rivers near their confluence.

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The Meeker Division consisted of the Yellow Jacket and Flattops
Units. The Yellow Jacket Unit would have provided irrigation to 41,140
acres of land in the White and Yampa River Basins, following much the
same plan as presented in the White-Yampa Diversion Project in the 1952
report. Instead of a reservoir constructed on the White River, however,
this plan called for the enlargement of Trappers Lake, a natural lake at
the head of the river. The Flattops Unit was to provide 128,000 acre-feet
of water for municipal and industrial use in the area along the Colorado
River that was expected to be involved in oil shale development. It would

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