WSP04994

• File Number: 8221.110.J
• Description: Juniper-Cross Mountain Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Date: 7/6/1981
• Title: The Echo of Echo Park: The History of National Park Development and Water Resource Nondevelopment in Northwest Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

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One of the major reasons for construction of Echo Park and Split
Mountain dams was that the reservoirs would be less subject to evapo-
ration loss than would be the case at a number of alternate sites
favored by environmentalists.

Echo Park and Split Mountain Reservoirs would be relatively
narrow, deep lakes protected by high canyon walls and thus less sub-
ject to the forces which cause high evaporation losses.

There was deep concern about evaporation losses then as there
is today, not only because such losses could instead be used to
serve people, but because such losses would be taken from Colorado's
compact share of Colorado River waters (43).

Although Bureau of Reclamation figures for comparison evapora-
tion figures fell into some dispute, Echo Park and Split Mountain
saved between 44,000 (44) acre feet and 350,000 (45) acre feet per
year in terms of evaporation losses when compared with all other
alternates.

Although there was general agreement on the utility of Echo
Park and Split Mountain and the lesser evaporation losses by such
diverse individuals as the authors of the Echo Park Controversy (46)
and a representative of the American Museum-ot NatUral History (47),
the opposition to construction of Echo Park and Split Mountain by the
organized environmental movement can best be summed up by a public memo-
randum distributed by the National Park Service on March 17, 1950,
wnich stated in part: "There are other dam sites elsewhere in the
general region which would serve the same purposes but with larger
losses of water from evaporation. At the same time, however, their
development would save...Dinosaur National Monument." (48)

Thus, regardless of the dispute over the evaporation loss figures
a comparison of evaporation losses between Echo Park and such options /,
as Cross Mountain, became a nonfactor.

ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

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ECHO

The propaganda effort against Echo Park was shifting into high
gear with a 16 mm color and sound film entitled "Wilderness River
Trail", which was shot for and distributed by the 'Sierra Club (49)
and a commercial river rafter using a utah state capitol mimeograph
machine to put out material against the project. (50)

During the 1950s, river running was a source of recreation and
an industry that was in its infancy and there were conflicting
reports of whether it was or was not a safe adventure for individuals.

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