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Service Area <br />additional housing and supportin.g facilities is qrocainq more <br />urgent. On the South side of th.e river the land slopes gradually <br />upward through rolling hills to the [9illiams Fork Ridge. Dry farm-� <br />ing is practiced whenever terrain permits. Nearly all this land <br />is underlain with coal deposits and extensive mining operations are� <br />in progress. The Edna mine and the Energy mine are both in this <br />area and between them make Routt County the largest coal producer <br />of any County in the State. Additional expansion of mining activit.y <br />is in progress. <br />Just east of the Town of Hayden is the Hayden plant, a coal <br />fired, thermal electric generating station jointly owned by <br />Colorado-Ute Electric Association with headquarters in Montrose, <br />Colorado and the Salt River Project of Phoenix, Arizona. An en- <br />largement of the plant is currently underway which will provide a <br />total installed capacity at the plant of 400 megawatts. Cooling <br />and process water for the plant is obtained from the Yampa River. <br />Four incorporated towns lie in or adjacent to the project <br />area as well as numerous unincorporated communities. Present <br />population and future projections for the towns and for Routt <br />County as a whole are shown in Table �. <br />1/ <br />Table 4 <br />Population and Projected Po ulation <br />Town Years <br />Hayden <br />Oak Creek <br />Yampa <br />Steamboat Spring <br />Routt County <br />196� <br />764 <br />666 <br />312 <br />1843 <br />5900 <br />1970 <br />763 <br />492 <br />286 <br />2340 <br />6592 <br />1973 1478 <br />1300 1700 <br />S50 1600 <br />300 500 <br />3500 6100 <br />8200 1_1900 <br />History of the Area <br />Settlement in the project area began about 1880 with the <br />establishment of large livestock ranches. Until the Denver and <br />Salt Lake P.ailroad (now a branch of the Denver and Rio Grande <br />Western) was built through the area in 1905 and 1906, cattle <br />raised in the area had to be driven 60 miles to Wolcott to be <br />loaded on the railroad. The coming of the railroad 1ed to the <br />1/Colorado Depart. of Health, Flater nuality D1anagement Plan for the <br />Green River Basin. <br />• III - 2 <br />