| OCR Text |
Show PART II DESCRIPTION Range in Wyoming at the north end of the Colorado River Basin, and flows southward to its junction with the Colorado River about 60 miles south of the town of Green River, Utah. The principal tributaries are the New Fork River, Big Sandy Creek, Blacks Fork, Henrys Fork, Yampa, White, Duchesne, Price, and San Rafael Rivers. The Great Divide Closed Basin has only one stream with perennial flow, a few perennial lakes, and numerous intermittent or dry lakes and streams. It does not contribute to the water resources of the region except for a small amount of internal use. Prior to about 1960 there were 41 storage reservoirs in the subregion having usable capacities greater than 1,000 acre-feet and total usable capacity of 575,400 acre-feet. Recently constructed reservoirs in the Upper Colorado River Storage Project include Flaming Gorge Reservoir (1962, usable capacity 3,516,000 acre-feet) and Fontenelle Reservoir (1963, usable capacity 345,400 acre-feet) on the Green River, and the Steinaker off-channel storage reservoir near Vernal, Utah (1962, active capacity 33,300 acre-feet). Joes Valley Reservoir on Cottonwood Creek near Orangeville, Utah (capacity 54,600 acre-feet) was completed in October 1965. A total of 17 transmountain diversions export about 109,500 acre-feet of water from the subregion annually. The principal trans- mountain diversions are the Duchesne and Strawberry tunnels. The Green River portion of the subregion contributes about 38 percent of the total discharge at Lee Ferry from 41 percent of the total area, and produces an average annual unit discharge of about 0.15 cfs/sq mi. Measured yearly runoff from tributaries at the head- waters ranges up to 2.7 cfs/sq mi. The Upper Main Stem Subregion The Upper Main Stem subregion includes the Colorado River and all of its tributaries upstream from the junction of the Colorado and Green Rivers, an area of 26,192 square miles. Prior to 1918 this part of the Colorado River was known as the Grand River. The Colorado River rises upstream from Grand Lake in north-central Colorado, and drains the west- central portion of Colorado and a small area in east-central Utah. The principal tributaries are the Roaring Fork, Eagle, Gunnison, and Dolores Rivers. The larger of the transmountain diversions are the Hoosier Pass tunnel (1952), Roberts tunnel (1963), August P. Gumlick (formerly Jones Pass) tunnel (1940), Twin Lakes tunnel (1935), Grand River ditch (1892>, Alva B. Adams tunnel (1947), and Moffat tunnel (1936). A total of 17 transmountain diversions export about 414,600 acre-feet of water annually from the region. In addition, about 102,600 acre-feet is exported from the Dolores River to the San Juan-Colorado subregion and does not represent a net loss to the Colorado River basin. |
