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A" -_,_ UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION Region 4 Post Office Box 360 Salt Lake City 10, Utah February 2$, 1951 To: Commissi~ner, Bureau of Reclamation From: Regional Director Subject: Supplemental Report on Central Utah Project, Utah Herewith is ~ report on the potential Central Utah project. It is a supplement to the comprehensive report of December 1950, entitled Colorado River Storage project ~ Participating Projects. The Central utah project is one of a group of developments described as participating projects in the report of the Regional Director on the Colorado River Storage project and participating proj- ects, and is recommended in that report for authorization. The attached report provides information on the Central Utah project in greater detail than does the comprehensive plan report. The Central Utah project is particularly important because it affords the only practicable means of providing a substantial quantity of new water for the Bonneville Basin, without which future increases in water use for municipal and industrial purposes in areas south of Salt Lake City would necessitate corresponding reductions in the present inadequate supply of irrigation water. The project would provide other substantial benefits for the Bonneville and Uinta Basins. Water exchanges in the initial phase of the project would involve presently irrigated lands in the Uinta Basin, including lands in the Uintah Indian irrigation project. Further stuqyis expected to show that the exchanges would benefit the Uinta Basin lands through improved water regulation. In the absence of conclusive data, however, no benefits from tile exchange are included in the present project analyses. If the benefi ts are confirmed by future detailed studies the lands benefited, including Indian lands with approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, should participate in the Central Utah project. Indian participation should be in accordance with laws applicable to the development of irri- gation projects on Indian reservations, including provisions of the Act of July 1, 1932 (47 Stat. 564, 25 D.S.C. 3abA) which act should be extended by appropriate legislation. The Indian lands should receive assistance from t.l}e Upper Colorado River Account in the same manner and to the same degree as other lands in participating projects.