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<br />- <br /> <br />... <br />00 <br />'" <br />t;, <br /> <br />The Sinbad Valley feasibility study indicates that additional <br />information is needed before final selection can be made among the various <br />alternatives. First. additional discharge and conductivity measurements are <br />required to define salt loads of high flows; second, onsite evaporation data <br />are needed to further refine the sizing of evaporation ponds (a pan <br />evaporation station should be established and operated in sinbad Valley for at <br />least one year); third, the abandoned wildcat well, No.1, sinbad Unit, should <br />be evaluated for injection suitability. Other questions which need to be <br />resolved include water rights and the compatibility of the project with <br />existing land uses. <br /> <br />22. Uinta Basin Unit (Reclamation and USDA) <br /> <br />The Uinta Basin Unit is located in northeastern Utah. The unit area <br />includes portions of Duchesne and Uintah Counties and is situated between the <br />Uinta Mountains on the north and the Tavaputs plateau on the south. The <br />principal communities within the area are Duchesne, Roosevelt, and Vernal. <br /> <br />Most of the salt pickup from the unit area is from the dissolution <br />of salts from the soil and subsurface materials, principally from soils of <br />marine origin which underlie most of the Uinta Basin. Seepage from conveyance <br />systems and deep percolation resulting from irrigation are the primary <br />processes which dissolve salts from the soils and shales and convey the salts <br />through the ground water system to natural drainages and ultimately to the <br />Colorado River. An estimated 450,000 tons of salt from the Uinta Basin <br />annually reach the Colorado River. <br /> <br />Phase I.--Uinta Basin Unit alternatives which were evaluated include <br />lining irrigation canals and laterals to reduce seepage losses and thus reduce <br />the salt load carried to the Colorado River; collecting saline water and <br />disposing of it through deep well injection, evaporation ponds, or a desalting <br />plant; using saline water for energy development, transportation of coal <br />through a coal-slurry pipeline, or cooling purposes at a local powerplant; and <br />the retirement from irrigation of high salt contributing lands. As <br />determined by the four tests of viability (completeness, effectiveness, <br />efficiency, and acceptability), the only viable alternative is canal lining. <br /> <br />Under the canal lining alternative, 55.5 miles of the total of about <br />240 miles of canals and laterals in the Uinta Basin would be lined with <br />concrete. project implementation would reduce the salt load to the Colorado <br />River by an estimated 21,000 to 30,000 tons per year and reduce canal seepage <br />by about 16,800 acre-feet per year, of which about 4,600 acre-feet could be <br />used to reduce irrigation shortages. <br /> <br />An integrated planning report/draft environmental impact statement <br />on the unit has been prepared and was released to the public on April 25, <br />1986. The final document is scheduled to be completed and filed with the <br />Environmental Protection Agency in March 1987. Design-data collection and <br />other advance-planning activities are scheduled to begin in October 1987. <br />Construction of the unit is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 1990. <br /> <br />Phase II.--Uinta Basin Unit Phase II alternatives which will be <br />evaluated include a joint Bureau of Reclamation-Soil Conservation Service <br />program of lining canals and laterals in conjunction with on-farm irrigation <br />system improvements, lining canals and laterals not considered under the phase <br />I study, eliminating canals by combining them with other canals which would be <br /> <br />VIl-30 <br /> <br />- <br />