Big Sand Wash Dam and Reservoir Enlarged
Limbaugh
CUWCD Gen. Mgr. Don Christiansen, and
UC Regional Director Rick Gold
A dedication ceremony was held on Thursday June 28, 2007 to commemorate the enlargement of the Big Sand Wash Reservoir, a central feature of the Uinta Basin Replacement Project of the Central Utah Project (CUP). Among the dignitaries and guests attending the ceremony were Assistant Secretary of Water and Science, Mark Limbaugh, and members/representatives of Utah's congressional delegation. The primary agencies involved in the enlargement project are the Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD), Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Reclamation Mitigation Conservation Commission, Moon Lake Water Users Association, and the Duchesne County Water Conservancy District.
Big Sand Wash Reservoir is an off-stream reservoir located in Duchesne County, Utah approximately 18 miles west of Roosevelt. Construction of the original dam was completed in 1964 primarily to provide irrigation water storage as well as recreation and aquatic habitat. The enlargement of the reservoir will facilitate the transfer of water rights from the stabilization of 13 lakes in the High Uinta Wilderness. In addition, increased water supplies will also be available for municipal and irrigation purposes for Roosevelt City and surrounding areas, and instream flows. The height of Big Sand Wash Dam was increased 26 feet which has increased the total active storage capacity in the reservoir by 12,100 acre-feet. Water will be conveyed to the Roosevelt area via the Big Sand Wash Roosevelt Pipeline currently under construction. Upon its completion, the Moon Lake Water Users Association will operate and maintain the Big Sand Wash Dam and Reservoir.
The increased capacity of the reservoir will provide irrigators in the Uinta Basin the ability to more adequately distribute runoff from the Uinta Mountains on a schedule that better matches the consumptive use of their crops, offsetting the effects of the east-west orientation of the Uinta Mountains which results in rapid snowmelt during the spring thaw on the south-facing slopes. Operation of Big Sand Wash Dam and Reservoir will be in coordination with the existing Moon Lake Reservoir and the Yellowstone Feeder Canal to provide instream flows for fish in the Lake Fork River from Moon Lake Dam to the Big Sand Wash Feeder Diversion Structure and in the Yellowstone River from the Yellowstone Diversion Dam to the Lake Fork River.
The Central Utah Project was authorized by Public Law 84-485 on April 11, 1956, as a participating project of the Colorado River Storage Project, to help meet Utah's long-term water needs. Construction progress on the CUP has proceeded slowly due to the complexity of the project; complex environmental analyses, and sporadic federal funding. The slow progress prompted state and local officials to ask Congress to empower the Central Utah Water Conservancy District to complete the palnning and construction of the remaining portion of the CUP, specifically the Bonneville Unit. Congress responded to local concerns by enacting the Central Utah Project Completion Act in 1992. For the first time in history, Congress designated a local entity (CUWCD) as the planning and construction entity for a major federal water project.
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