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Show More Detailed Discussion of Issues a. Quantification of water to Tribal lands as obligated under the Winters Doctrine. - purposes on which to base quantification have not been tested in court, I do not believe. We have to assume the 258,900 a f annually is for irrigation. Both the State and the BuRec. use this purpose in dealing with Indian water needs. The Uinta Unit of the CUP is primarily for Indian water for irrigation. Uinta Dam would be on portion of the Uinta River which is on Indian land. Whiterocks Dam would back up reservoir water 2 miles into National Forest lands and inundate one of the most beautiful canyons on the Uinta Range. Water released from this reservoir would benefit only a very small number of Utes irrigating farmlands. What is particularly critical, is the fact that while irrigation is used as the purpose for allocating Indian water, it is commonly exp ected that the Utes, like their white counterparts, will sell the water for mineral development or use it for power or mineral development themselves. It would be tragic, then, to lose Whiterocks Canyon on a premise that will not prevail. Alternative developments were presented in the Uintah Unit EIS (Draft) of 8/24/78; either a larger and more costly Uinta River Dam, without the Whiterocks River Dam, or two smaller dam/reservoirs on both rivers. No non-structural alternatives were considered b. The issue of the need of the CUP as the means for providing this allocated water. - The alternative to the CUP will not be discussed whatever the purpose. Steve Boyden is himself committed to CUP development (I have discussed this with him) and he has convinced the Ute Tribal Council that there are no alternatives for their needs.* * At the hearings at Ft. Duchesne, 8/24/78, on the Uinta. Unit Draft EIS, only one Indian was present. He was at the hearing only until Boyden presented his statement, when both left. The "aura" of power by the BuRec, State, and Water Conservancy District was overwheliming! Yet this is supposed to be a DEmocr |
