OCR Text |
Show Escalante, and Loa. The main line of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad runs adjacent to U. S. highway 50 and 6. Stations on this line are located at Helper, Price, and Green River, Short, local lines connect from the D& RGW line to Columbia, Scofield, and Hiawatha. Price is the largest city in the area. Other towns having more than 1,000 inhabitants include Dragerton, Helper and Green River. Almost all inhabitants of the West Colorado Hydrologic Area live in Carbon, Emery, Garfield ( excluding Panguitch, Hatch, Antimony, Ruby's Inn and Bryce Canyon), and Wayne Counties. Table # 1 below shows urban and rural population distribution for these four counties from 1940 - 1970 at 10- year intervals. Table # 2 shows total county population for the period 1890 - 1970 at 10- year intervals. TABLE # 1 County 1970 1960 1950 1940 Carbon Urban Rural Total Emery Wayne Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total Garfield* Urban Rural Total 12,431 15,944 16,897 10,623 3,216 5,191 8,004 7,836 15,647 21,135 24,901 18,459 4,206 4,198 4,395 4,738 931 1,348 1,909 2,334 5,137 5,546 6,304 7,072 672 853 1,051 989 811 875 1,154 1,405 1,483 1,728 2,205 2,394 1,318 1,497 1,772 2,337 180 178 230 98 1,498 1,675 2,002 2,435 * These figures are only for that portion of Garfield County that lies within the boundaries of the West Colorado Hydrologic Area. TABLE # 2 Carbon Emery Wayne Garfield 1890 - 5,076 1900 5,004 4,657 1,907 1910 8,624 6,750 1,749 1920 15,489 7,411 2,097 1930 17,798 7,042 2,067 2,100 1940 18,459 7,072 2,394 2,435 1950 24,901 6,304 2,205 2,002 1960 21,135 5,546 1,728 1,675 1970 15,647 5,137 1,483 1,498 WATER RELATED LAND USE IN THE WEST COLORADO HYDROLOGIC AREA The Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources ( formerly the Utah Water and Power Board) has been charged by the State Legislature with the responsibility of developing a State Water plan which would coordinate and give direction to the activities of all state and federal agencies concerned with Utah's water resources. One of the first steps to accomplish this purpose was to divide the State into 10 natural drainage basins and then proceed to inventory and analyze the water resources within each basin. One of the major items to consider in such a study is the amount of water depleted from the basin through the processes of evaporation and transpiration. To arrive at an estimate of this depletion, a knowledge of the kinds and extent of irrigated crops is needed along with similar knowledge of vegetation which consumes water in addition to the natural precipitation that falls on it. |