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Show 3. Now, however, as is indicated in the enclosed letter from the Bureau to Brian Beard, Conservation Chairman, Sierra Club, (Nov. 14, '78) the Bureau is reversing the Strawberry Collection System to an M & I System. Questions: Change of Purpose for Strawberry Collection System 1. Does this change become a change of purpose? Is the manner of announcing it legal? Can this change be made without a new EIS? Does this change constitute a reason for re-authorization? Re-authorization of what - the Strawberry Collection System or the Bonneville Unit itself? 2. In the diversion of waters from Rock Creek, only 2.8 cubic feet per second of water Is to be released in the five mile portion of this stream between the proposed Upper Stillwater and Lower Stillwater Dams on this Creek. This instream flow will not sustain a fishery and such action does not comply with non-degradation stream classifications of the Clean Water Act or State law to protect fisheries. Although this issue is not raised in the question of re-authorization, it is a legal issue pertinent to water diversion from Rock Creek. It is also pertinent to the final issue I have raised in this letter. Issue #2 Change in Planning and Content in Draft EIS on Jordanelle/ Provo River M & I System. This is about ready for release. An M & I System in the Bonneville Unit, for water supply to the Salt Lake Valley, is to be developed on the Provo River, an addition to Deer Creek Reservoirt This proposed Jordanelle Reservoir would inundate a portion of the Heber Valley and necessitate relocation of a major highway. Water flows from the Provo River into Utah Lake. In order to committ these flows into the Jordanelle M & I System, a small portion of which is for irrigation, the Bureau proposed to dike two marsh/wetland bays on Utah Lake - Provo and Goshen Bays. The rationale is that the 135,000 a f of water which can be saved from evaporation of the lake reduced by one third size, would substitute as irrigation water in the area for the Provo River flows. This diking-for-evaporation-salvage was presented to the public in the Bonneville Unit EIS of 1973, and was understood by the public, to be the "heart" of the proposed Jordanelle M & I System. In order to calculate economic feasibility and a cost/benefit ratio of 1:1 for the Bonneville Unit for Project authorization, the Strawberry Collection System for "irrigation" and the Jordanelle M & I System as well as the Diamond Fork Power System, were tied together as the Bonneville Unit. In the Bonneville Unit Final EIS the Strawberry Collection System and the Jordanelle M & I System were interlocked through the proposed diking of Utah Lake. Somewhere along the line, apparently without public comment, this diking was entitled the Utah Lake Irrigation System. - Some 45,000 a f of water stored in Deer Creek is not being released for purposes of creating a demand for CUP water |
