Correspondence on Bonneville Unit of Central Utah Project

Page 91

- Uinta Basin Stream Flows. The present plan for the Bonneville Unit provides only 6*500 a.f. of'bypass flows for the purposes of maintaining fisheries in 'the Uinta Basin streams. It would require an additional ' bypass of 30,000 - 35,000 a.f. to meet the Forest Service and Utah State Division of Wildlife recommendations for Uinta Basin stream flows. However, even these flows are considered minimum and they would nor support a quality fishery. BSFW states that additional bypass flows of over 80,000 a.f. are needed to support the existing high quality fisheries. -The BSFW proposed bypasses would produce .130,000 stream fisherman days per year while the Bureau of Reclamation bypass flows would produce only 30,000 stream fisherman days per year. If either level of increased flows were met, it appears that possibly the repayment contract and almost certainly the/Indian Deferral Agreement (discussed below) would have'to be amended because of the reduction in project water available to the Bonneville Basin. Environmental concerns are always difficult to balance with other more tangible considerations; we_£i^Jfcrlur&^ that alternative water sources are available to provide Salt Lake County M&I waiter and-• eliminate the need to buildThe Strawberry Aqueduct for that purpose. Indian Deferral Agreement. The Indian Deferral Agreement is a four-party agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Ute Indian Tribe and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.- In this agreement, the non-Indian parties recognized the Indian lands totaling 36,450 acres as served or to be served from the Duchesne River and the Indians agreed to defer unti!2005 the development of the 15,242 acres of the total which is not now.irrigated/ This Deferral Agreement permitted construction of the Bonneville Unit without objection from"the Ute Tribe or the Bureauof Indian Affairs. The Ute Indians got the following assurances from this agreement. - Irrigation of the IndianJLand would be deferred unti "[development •_of~the life IndianUiiitlQf_the_ultimate phase of then^hTr¥Tu^ah Project.'' • •:••-- -~ ~~- " : - - - -~~ rrr - A recognition by the State of the 15,242 acres of Indian land which had no prior history of irrigation, but with respect to which the Indians claimed a water right under the Winter's Doctrine. It was further agreed that facilities would be provided to mitigate for losses of the fish, wildlife and recreation on lands owned by the Ute Indian Tribe. • the -wri