Issues Paper, Central Utah Project

Page 211

STONEFLY SOCIETY of the WASATCH FLY FISHING CLUB DEDICATED TO UTAH'S FLY FISHING FUTURE J~0 OAY\df\AVL4 J.OS* 727 6th Avenue Salt Lake City, Utah 84103 April 5, 1978 Cecil D. Andrus Secretary of the Interior Department of the Interior 18th "C" Street, NW Washington, D.C. 2C240 Dear Secretary Andrus, We are writing continued const Utah Project, enviromentally it casts a clou the Bureau of R Unit is one of upon the Bureau destructive pro to you to express our concerns regarding the ruction of the Bonneville Unit of the Central We feel that the Bonneville Unit is so destructive and economically unsound, that d of doubt over literally all activities of eclamation. It is ironic that the Bonneville the major projects that has drawn criticism of Reclamation, but other less costly, less jects have been cancelled. At the present time a number of controversies surround this project, and there is ample reason to suspend further con­struction until they are resolved. 1. Stream Flows - The future operation of the Bonneville Unit will adversely effect 240 miles of trout streams. Much of this total will be inundated, completely cewatered, dewa'eered beyond an acceptable level of 25%, or rendered unusable due to high flows* Thus, most of these streams will be completely destroyed. These streams are generally high quality waters, often remote and unspoiled, the best Utah has to offer. This man,moth disruption of stream habitat will also have impacts on wildlife range and the basic health of the riparian environment. The flow regiments on these streams h&ve been selected by water planners ignoring almost all input by fishery biologists. The recently developed elegant methodology produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Instream Flow Project have never been applied to these streams.