WSP00930

• File Number: 8220.131.J
• Description: Yellow Jacket Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 11/1/1976
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Upper Colorado Resource Study Yellow Jacket Unit Colorado: Supplement to Progress Report of April 1976
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

l~
~
'"
N

Introduction

This supplement to the Yellow Jacket Progress Report of April 1976
has been prepared to present information and data which have become avail-
able since that time. The report supplement is being distributed to keep
the planning team and the public informed about the latest planning
developments. A new reservoir site is now proposed as a substitute for
the Lake 'Avery enlargement plan described in the Progress Report, and
several other plan modifications are suggested for consideration.

The Upper Colorado Resource Study initiated by the Bureau of Recla-
mation in January 1976, is a feasibility-level investigation covering the
Yampa River Basin except the Little Snake River and Vermillion Creek sub-
basins, and the entire White River Basin in Colorado and Utah. The latter
portion is called the Yellow Jacket Unit, which is a continuation of earlier
investigations on the Yellow Jacket Project. In the April 1976 progress
report on the Yellow Jacket Unit, six alternative plans were presented and
evaluated, including the "MOP Compromise Plan" which was considered by the
planning team to be the most acceptable blend of features.

The MOP Compromise Plan, consisting of the Milk Creek and White River
Se~ents, would provide a regulated water supply for the following purposes.

Project purpose
Surface irrigation
Sprinkler irrigation
Oil shale industry
Coal industry
Municipal use
Total

Water supply
, . (acre-feet)
8,500
17,900
60,000
35,000
5,000
126,400

The Milk Segment would provide all of the surface irrigation listed above and
5,000 acre-feet for the coal industry, with the remainder of the water
supply for uses in the White River Segment. Reservoir regulation for
the White River Segment would have been obtained by enlargement of the
existing Lake Avery on Big Beaver Creek and construction of a feeder
system consisting of a diversion dam on the North Fork of White River
and a buried pipeline. The pipeline could have conveyed water by gravity
flow through a 0.6-mile Oak Ridge Tunnel fpr irrigation and other uses
or the water could have been stored at will.in the enlarged Lake Avery.
Stored flows would be lifted to the Oak Ridge Tunnel by the Avery Pumping
Plant or released into the natural channel downstream depending on seasonal
demands. Water for oil shale and related uses would have been made avail-
albe to private interests at the potential Oil Shale Diversion Dam on the
White River at the mouth of Yellow Creek.

The previously proposed enlargement wf Lake Avery has now been abandoned
in favor of a potential reservoir 2 miles upstream on Big Beaver Creek at
the Sawmill Mountain site. A photo on the following page show both sites.

1