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<br />SETTING <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />The Uinta Basin Unit study area is located in northeastern Utah in <br />Duchesne and Uintah Counties. The Uinta Basin lies between the Uinta <br />Mountains on the north and the Tavaputs Plateau on the south and forms a <br />part of the Green River Basin. The unit area includes lands in Ashley <br />Valley and Pleasant Valley and along lower reaches of the Duchesne and <br />Uinta Rivers. Irrigated agriculture occurs on Indian and non-Indian <br />lands. <br /> <br />Approximately 204,000 acres of land are irrigated within the Uinta <br />Basin although only approximately 180,000 acres are irrigated each year. <br />The Bureau's present study is limited to an area of 104,200 irrigated <br />acres. Additional studies are scheduled for the remaining irrigated areas. <br />Sixty-five main canals with a combined length of about 600 miles serve the <br />area. The combined length of canals and major laterals exceeds 800 miles. <br /> <br />Principal cities within the basin are Duchesne, Roosevelt, and <br />Vernal which are located along U.S. Highway 40 a major highway which <br />traverses the area from west to east. State Highway 44 extends north from <br />Vernal into Wyoming. Much of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation lands <br />are within the basin. <br /> <br />Socioeconomic Data <br /> <br />Nearly all the irrigated lands and nearly all the population of <br />Duchesne and Uintah Counties are in the Uinta Basin Unit area. The total <br />population of the two counties in 1970 was 19,983. The population in <br />Duchesne County declined 20 percent from 1940 to 1960, largely because <br />of a diminishing need for agricultural labor. During the same period, the <br />Uintah County population remained stable because of an economy with <br />deeper roots in tourism and oil exploration. <br /> <br />After 1970 Duchesne and Uintah County populations increased signifi- <br />cantly. This was brought on by conventional oil exploration and develop- <br />ment in large part, and, to a small extent, by construction on Bureau of <br />Reclamation's Central Utah Project. The rapid influx of population growth <br />slowed after 1974, however, especially in Duchesne County. Nevertheless, <br />by 1980, U.S. Census Department advance counts placed the population in the <br />basin at nearly 33,071 persons, or an increase since 1970 of about 63 <br />percent, Rapid population growth is expected through 1990. It may result <br />in more than a 100 percent increase above the current population, brought <br />on this time by oil shale and tar sands development. East-central Uintah <br />County contains the highest grade oil shale in the State of Utah, with an <br />estimated potential of 100 billion barrels of shale oil possible, once <br />processes have been perfected. Population levels may actually decline <br />after 1990, however, once the oil shale industry has gotten under way, <br />before stabilizing somewhere around the year 1995 or 2000. <br /> <br />4 <br /> <br />,", ~. i.~ /. ~~ ... <br />I, '._ '_ t.....i.J <br />