WSP03098

• File Number: 8200.765
• Description: White River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 10/1/1979
• Author: David E Fleming
• Title: Environmental Assessment Report - Rangely Project - Taylor Draw Reservoir
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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002S82

B. Land Use - Service Area

The possible service area includes irrigable lands downstream
from the project, the Town of Rangely, and potential industrial sites
both upstream and downstream and in the area south of the river (see
Map 2).

Five miles downstream from the dam site is the Town of Rangely,
a town heavily dependent upon the oil and gas fields lying west and
northwest of the community, The town lies partially within the flood
plain of the White River and partially on the higher benchlands to
the south of the river. It contains the residential, business, retail
shops, schools, and institutions of a small town plus a community
college, a hospital, and a large number of businesses associated with
the oil industry, About 550 acres of bottomlands are irrigated and
farmed. The lands surrounding the town above the flood plain are arid
and uneven. Most of these lands are used for grazing that varies from
poor to fair, About 20 acres or more are required to provide an animal
unit month of grazing (2). In addition, the lands in and around Rangely
support oil and gas production with about one well for every 40 acres,
gathering systems, tank farms, and roads to each well and oil company
camp, In the surrounding countryside there are a few ranches and farms,
usually along streams in sparsely populated country,

In the White River valley upstream from the reservoir are operating
ranches, a continuation of CSH 64, a pipeline, an electric power trans-
mission line, and a number of ranch roads, The flood plain of the river
is largely irrigated and farmed. Settlement has occurred largely in the
White River valley and in the valleys of its tributaries.

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