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31-655: The Uinta Mountains are the only major mountain range running east to west in North America . The Uinta Basin lies to the south of the Uinta Mountains and is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from those mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River —a tributary of

62-686: A U.S. survey foot (exactly ⁠ 1200 / 3937 ⁠   meters since 1893). On December 31, 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology , the National Geodetic Survey , and the United States Department of Commerce deprecated use of the US survey foot and recommended conversion to either the meter or the international foot. As a rule of thumb in US water management, one acre-foot

93-783: A different bundle of water right interests and a different set of constituents. The result is a complex layering of economic interests, water rights, land ownership, management objectives, and politics. Perhaps nowhere in the Basin is this layering and the accompanying actual and potential conflict more focused than the Lake Fork River. The river begins in the High Uintas Wilderness area and feeds thirteen small, high-elevation lakes-turned-reservoirs (High Mountain Lakes). It then provides early-priority Tribe flow rights though

124-917: A partial replacement for the Uinta and Upalco Units, UBRP is intended to serve the following purposes: stabilizing the aging and unsafe High Mountain Lakes on the Lake Fork River drainage and restoring ecological values compatible with the High Uintas Wilderness; providing replacement water for the late season irrigation water stored in the High Mountain Lakes; providing 3,000 acre-feet (3,700,000 m) of water per year to Roosevelt City for municipal and industrial (M&I) purposes; providing 2,500 acre-feet (3,100,000 m) of water per year to Lake Fork River irrigators; facilitating improved water resources management and water conservation in

155-480: A portion of the UIIP, feeds Reclamation's Moon Lake Project (serving non-Indian irrigators), and provides additional irrigation water by exchange with Starvation Reservoir (a CUP feature). Because it diverts Lake Fork River water, integrating UBRP into this already complex and contentious water environment was difficult and problematic. The Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment for UBRP were published in 2001. As

186-615: A scaled-down version was developed. The scaled-down project intentionally avoided interference with tribal water rights, lands, and interests. The Central Utah Water Conservancy District (District) is the sponsor and entity responsible for repayment of the federal obligation associated with the Bonneville Unit of the CUP and UBRP. Each stage in the Uinta Basin water development brought with it new water facilities. Each stage served

217-530: A short distance into northwest Colorado and slightly into southwestern Wyoming in the United States . As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains , they are unusual for being the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west, and lie approximately 100 miles (160 km) east of Salt Lake City . The range has peaks ranging from 11,000 to 13,528 feet (3,353 to 4,123 m), with

248-670: Is Mirror Lake because of its good fishing, scenic views, and easy road access. The south and east sides of the range are largely within the Colorado River watershed, including the Blacks Fork and the Duchesne River , which are tributaries of the Green River . The Green is the major tributary of the Colorado River and flows in a tight arc around the eastern side of the range. (Indeed, John Wesley Powell said

279-580: Is on the Uintas' southeast flank, on the border between Colorado and Utah. Acre-foot The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about 1,233 m commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs , aqueducts , canals , sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows . An acre-foot equals approximately an eight-lane swimming pool , 82 ft (25 m) long, 52 ft (16 m) wide and 9.8 ft (3 m) deep. As

310-410: Is taken to be the planned annual water usage of a suburban family household. In some areas of the desert Southwest, where water conservation is followed and often enforced, a typical family uses only about 0.25 acre-foot per year (310  m /a) of water per year. One acre-foot/year is approximately 119 cu ft/d (3.38 m /d). The acre-foot per year has been used historically in

341-456: Is the lifeblood of the basin economy; and, in the basin, irrigation is the lifeblood of agriculture. Wilderness designation protects much of the Uinta Mountains. The mountains and associated streams are an important ecological resource. At the sabres game the fan in the section 203 seat 4 said the above Interests competing for Uinta Basin water include: non-Indian irrigators, the Tribe, the cities,

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372-721: Is typical of the central Rocky Mountains. Large grazing and browsing animals include the Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, moose, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Mammalian predators include the American black bear, mountain lion, coyotes, red fox, badger, wolverine, marten, and the long-tailed weasel. A gray wolf pack has been observed at the eastern end of the range, in Moffat County, Colorado. Raptors include bald and golden eagles, turkey vultures, various hawks and harriers, and owls including

403-581: The Colorado River . The basin is the location of the Ute Tribe of the Uinta and Ouray Reservation (Tribe) which is commonly referred to as the Northern Ute Tribe, as well as the cities of Duchesne, Roosevelt, and Vernal. When oil prices are sufficiently high to overcome the cost of transportation to areas outside the basin, the area's oil industry roars to life (as it has in the past two years). Ordinarily, agriculture (chiefly cattle operations)

434-572: The CUP as originally planned (with the Uinta and Upalco Units), and the current UBRP. In 1956, congress created the Colorado River Storage Project , authorizing the CUP (as well as other Reclamation projects). The CUP provided for the trans-basin diversion of Uinta Basin water to the Wasatch Front . The Wasatch Front is the most populous area of Utah and includes Provo and Salt Lake City . The project mitigated for

465-529: The Green was the "master stream" where it and the Colorado River came together.) The Bear and Weber rivers, the two largest tributaries of Great Salt Lake , are born on the west slope of the range. The Provo River , the largest tributary to Utah Lake , begins on the southern side of the range and flows west to Utah Lake, which itself drains via the Jordan River into Great Salt Lake. Large portions of

496-770: The Moosehorn Lake, Mount Watson, Hades Peak, and Red Shale formations. The flanks of the east-west trending Uinta Mountains contain a sequence of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata ranging from the Cambrian Lodore Formation to the Cretaceous Mancos Shale , all of which have been tilted during the uplift of the mountain range. The uplift of the range dates to the Laramide orogeny , about 70 to 50 million years ago, when compressive forces produced high-angle reverse faults on both

527-566: The US in many water-management agreements, for example the Colorado River Compact , which divides 15 million acre-feet per year (19 cubic kilometres per year) among seven western US states. Water reservoir capacities in the US are commonly given in thousands of acre-feet , abbreviated TAF or KAF . In most other countries except the US, the metric system is in common use and water volumes are normally expressed in liter , cubic meter or cubic kilometer . One acre-foot

558-527: The Uinta Basin by increasing water efficiency, enhancing beneficial use, and developing water storage; and enhancing environmental, fish, wildlife, and recreation resources. The project purposes are to be accomplished by construction (or upgrade) of the following facilities. [REDACTED] Media related to Uintah Basin at Wikimedia Commons Uinta Mountains The Uinta Mountains ( / j uː ˈ ɪ n t ə / yoo- IN -tə ) are an east-west trending mountain range in northeastern Utah extending

589-497: The great horned owl, great grey owl, and barn owls. Other notable large birds include the sage grouse and white-tailed ptarmigan. The Uintas are home to Camp Steiner , the highest Boy Scout camp in the U.S., at 10,400 feet (3,200 m). The camp is near mile marker 33 of the Mirror Lake Highway. The Uinta Highline Trail traverses the entire range and is a popular backpacking trail. Dinosaur National Monument

620-631: The high peaks are outcrops of the Uinta Mountain Group. Many of the peaks are ringed with bands of cliffs, rising to form broad or flat tops. The mountains are bounded to the north and south by reverse faults that meet below the range, on the north by the North Flank fault and on the south by the Uinta Basin boundary fault. The Uinta Mountain Group, from oldest to youngest, includes Uinta Mountain undivided quartz arenite , overlain by

651-589: The highest point being Kings Peak , also the highest point in Utah. The Mirror Lake Highway crosses the western half of the Uintas on its way to Wyoming. Utah State Route 44 crosses the east end of the Uintas between Vernal and Manila . The name "Uinta" derives from the Ute word Yoov-we-teuh , meaning "pine forest" or "pine tree". The Uinta Mountains are Laramide uplifted metasedimentary rocks deposited in an intracratonic basin in southwest Laurentia during

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682-411: The last ice age , and most of the large stream valleys on both the north and south sides of the range held long valley glaciers . However, despite reaching to over 13,500 feet (4,110 m) in elevation, the climate today is sufficiently dry that no glaciers survived even before the rapid current glacial retreat began in the middle nineteenth century. The Uintas are the most poleward mountain range in

713-587: The mountain range receive over 40 inches (100 cm) of precipitation annually. The high Uintas are snowcapped most of the year except for late July through early September. The Uinta Mountains have more than 400 miles (640 km) of streams and 1,000 lakes and ponds. The Uinta Mountains are part of the Wasatch and Uinta montane forests ecoregion . Nearly the entire range lies within Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (on

744-431: The name suggests, an acre-foot is defined as the volume of one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot . Since an acre is defined as a chain by a furlong (i.e. 66 ft × 660 ft or 20.12 m × 201.17 m), an acre-foot is 43,560 cubic feet (1,233.5  m ). There has been two definitions of the acre-foot (differing by about 0.0006%), using either the international foot (0.3048 m) or

775-660: The north and south sides of the present mountain range. The east-west orientation of the Uintas is anomalous compared to most of the ranges of the Rocky Mountains ; it may relate to changing stress patterns and rotation of the Colorado Plateau . The Green River used to flow into the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico , but changed to the Colorado River by going through the Uintas in ways not fully understood. The high Uintas were extensively glaciated during

806-399: The north and west) and Ashley National Forest (on the south and east). The range's highest peaks are protected as part of the High Uintas Wilderness . The forests contain many species of trees, including lodgepole pine , subalpine fir , Engelmann spruce , Douglas-fir , and quaking aspen . There are also many species of grasses, shrubs, and forbs growing in the Uinta Mountains. Fauna

837-641: The oil industry, and the natural environment. All water development in the basin has been intended to serve one or more of these interests. The UBRP is founded on and entwined with other water development in the basin. Key stages in that development are the establishment of the Northern Ute Reservation, homesteading and early water development, the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project, the Moon Lake Project,

868-479: The time of the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia . The marine and fluvial metasedimentary rocks in the core of the Uinta Mountains are of Neoproterozoic age (between about 700 million and 760 million years old) and consist primarily of quartzite , slate , and shale . These rocks comprise the Uinta Mountain Group , and reach thicknesses of 13,000 to 24,000 feet (4.0 to 7.3 km). Most of

899-587: The trans-basin diversion by creating the Uinta and Upalco Units. These units would have provided new storage in the Uinta Basin—on the Uinta and Lake Fork Rivers respectively. For a variety of reasons, the Uinta and Upalco Units were never constructed. Section 203 (a) of the Central Utah Project Completion Act authorized funding for UBRP—a project intended to provide similar benefits, in some measure, to those that were promised by

930-460: The units that were not constructed. Originally, the UBRP project planned under the authority of Section 203 (a) was to serve both Indian and non-Indian needs using Indian and non-Indian water. Although planning continued for several years, the Tribe withdrew its support at the eleventh hour—as contracts were being executed. The departure of the Tribe made a reformulation of the plan necessary. Eventually,

961-404: The world to reach over 13,000 feet (4,000 m) without modern glaciers, and are in fact the highest mountain range in the contiguous United States with no modern glaciers. Permafrost occurs at elevations above 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and at times forms large rock glaciers . Between the summits and ridgelines are wide, level basins with around 500 small lakes. One of the most popular lakes

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