OCR Text |
Show stations where stream discharge measurements were O Q 1 M L made, were published. 00'^ B ecause of a lack of stream discharge measurements, it was necessary to publish data from two different years on Rock Creek. Unfortunately, both of the stations having published data are located within the upper 3 miles of the section of stream that would be affected by Upper Stillwater Dam and no data were available for the remaining 5 miles of stream. Despite the confusion caused and the questions raised by the failure of the Forest Service and the State to publish all of the collected data, the resulting recommendations appear to be reasonable and to correspond well to historical average minimum flows. It is important to remember that the purpose of the Forest Service study was to determine the amount of flow which should be retained in the streams, during the nonirrigation and winter season, in order to prevent degrading the existing aquatic habitat to a point where irreparable losses would occur through diversion of natural flows into the Strawberry Aqueduct. The Bureau of Reclamation evaluated the minimum bypasses recommended by the cooperating agencies and related these demands to the water supply available to the Bonneville Unit from Uinta Basin streams. It was determined that the Strawberry Aqueduct would be capable of diverting an average of 136,600 acre- feet of water each year. Meeting the State Fish and Game's minimum flow for fishery purposes of 37,000 acre- feet each year would result in a net loss to the divertible flow of 62,900 acre- feet per year as explained in paragraph H3c. In order to salvage some of the fishery habitat immediately below stream diversions and dams and at the same time preserve Unit feasibility, the storage capacity design of Upper Stillwater Reservoir was increased to allow for downstream releases totalling 6,500 acre- feet annually.-' After consultation between the Bureau of Reclamation and representatives of the Utah State Department of Fish and Game ( now the Division of Wildlife Resources) and the Utah Water and Power Board ( now Division of Water Resources) it was agreed that, 1.98 acre- feet per 24- hour day = 1 c. f. s. per 24- hour day. 287 |