PROJ00533

• Contract/PO #: C153367
• Contractor Name: International Engineering Company
• Water District: 0
• County: Rio Blanco
• Bill Number: XB 99-999
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION

The 1981 Colorado General Assembly, through Senate Bill 439, authorized the
Co 1 orado Wcter Conservat ion Board (CWCB) to conduct the Ye 11 ow Jacket
Project Stucy which is a "feasibility study on Yellow Jacket Dam . a
project diverting or storing water from the White River above the confluence
of Piceance Creek". The CWCB sought and received proposals from several
interested engineering firms and contracted with International Engineering
Company, In,:. (JECO), in association with Western Engineers, Inc., to
conduct the study.

The objective of the Yellow Jacket Project Study was to evaluate, at an
appraisal level of detail, the technical feasibility and the cost of
constructing diversion, storage, and delivery systems which would develop
the water rights owned by the Yellow Jacket Water Conservancy District
(YJWCD). The analysis was to determine the yield of those rights, to
identify the locations and amounts of potential water demands, and to
deve 1 op a lter'nat i ve plans to supp ly those demands.

Background

Water development studies on the White River were initiated in the 1920s as
a part of the Upper Colorado River basin-wide reconnaissance studies of tne
Bureau of Rec 1 amat i on (USBR). Add it i ona 1 stud i es by the USBR in the 1940s
and 1950s resulted in a reconnaissance report on the Yampa-White Project in
1957. This project provided irrigation water for 187,000 acres of land in
the Yampa and White River Basins. The Yellow Jacket Unit of the Yampa-White
Project was d~signated as a discrete project by Congress in 1956.

In 1959, the '(JWCD was formed to work with the USBR in identifying a
feasible fedel'al project. While this project was being formulated, the
YJWCD applied for a conditional water right on the White River. This right
was granted w'ith an adjudication date of 1966 and an appropriation date cf
November 1953. The project, which consisted of irrigating 23,600 acres cf