OCR Text |
Show Under the provisions of Section 8 of the Colorado River Storage Project Act the Bonneville Unit plan includes a 10- year program to determine: ( a) The best possible use for fish conservation of the 6,500 acre- feet of water made available for fishery released to Rock Creek and the Strawberry River; ( b) Possibilities for stream improvement; and ( c) Replacement measures for lost stream fishing. That portion of the Rock Creek study on Ute Tribal lands would be carried out by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife in cooperation with the Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other portions of the study would be conducted by the Utah State Division of Wildlife Resources with the cooperation of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife and the Forest Service. To date the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has carried out ( in 196* 0 studies on Rock Creek designed to assess the sport fishing potential of the Bonneville Unit. The influence of the Bonneville Unit upon the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation was also assessed at that time. Releases from Upper Stillwater Reservoir, sufficient to provide a recommended minimum flow of 25 c. f. s. where Rock Creek enters Ute Tribal lands, would be made. This condition would be a part of the present plan. In dry years the natural flow would be provided. As mitigation for potential fishery losses on Rock Creek, the present plan ( under Section 8) includes the construction of 800 surface acres of reservoirs to be designed and operated specifically for recreational purposes. The U20- surface- acre Bottle Hollow Reservoir has already been constructed. Lower Stillwater Reservoir, with a surface area of 380 acres, would be built on Rock Creek. The Currant Creek Reservoir intake to the Strawberry Aqueduct has been designed to exclude fish. The proposed plan includes provision of a minimum flow of 5 c. f. s. or the natural flows of Currant Creek, whichever is instantaneously smaller, at the existing Currant Creek Feeder Canal. Currently some of the flow at this point, about 5 miles above the proposed site for Currant Creek Dam, is diverted into the existing Strawberry Reservoir. Under 445 |