| OCR Text |
Show and brush. Displacement of four farmsteads, 1.5 miles of telephone line, 3 miles of power lines, and 2.5 miles of Utah Highway 44 was necessary. As the reservoir is located offstream, there was no loss of stream habitat due to inundation. An unknown amount of wildlife habitat was lost. Using an estimate of 10 acres of area required per mile of canal construction, the construction of 16.5 miles of canal has eliminated about 165 acres of farmland in the valley. Before the Unit was constructed, Ashley Creek was often completely dewatered by diversions during the summer for irrigation purposes. With the Unit this is still the case. The diversion to the reservoir is below several canal diversions, limiting the Unit impacts to a section of stream already used to the maximum for irrigation. There has been very little change in the fishery, which is classified by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources as 12 miles of Class IV and 3.3 miles of Class V along the area affected by irrigation diversions. 3 A pump was installed and operating funds furnished to the State to pump water from Green River to the Stewart Lake Waterfowl Management Area when necessary. Thus far use of the pump has not been required as natural flows in Ashley Creek have been above average. Several miles of open canal were built as part of the Unit, and create the risk of children, livestock, and wildlife drowning in them. People are discouraged from swimming in these canals and fencing has been provided but the hasard still exists. Depletions to the Green River as a result of Vernal Unit operations amount to about 12,000 acre- feet per year. These depletions consist of reservoir evaporation, domestic use, and irrigation consumptive use, and uses incidental to irrigation. The total dissolved solids below Hoover Dam is being increased 1 mg/ 1. Using a value developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the cost to downstream users associated with this increase is estimated at $ 41,400 per year. Jensen Unit ( 1) Description The Jensen Unit, which would supply irrigation and municipal water to Ashley Valley in northeastern Utah, is scheduled for construction beginning in fiscal year 1974. Tyzack 410 |
