Record Details
page 6
Digital Collections at BYU
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | page 6 Central Utah Project news report, 1969 December, page 6 |
| Coverage | Electronic reproduction; |
| Format | 6 text/PDF |
| Rights | Brigham Young University; http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/generic.php Public Domain Public |
| Language | English; eng; en |
| Relation | Central Utah Project; Western Waters Digital Library; PROVO RIVER PROJECT the acute water shortages of the early 1930s inspired the residents of salt lake and utah counties to initiate and sponsor the bureau of reclamations planned and engineered provo river project with drouth conditions the natural streamflows strearnflows stream flows proved insufficient to satisfy demands of the expanding population and agriculture and means to augment existing supplies had to be found utah lake a natural storage reservoir normally holding 850000 acre feet of water shrank to 20000 acre feet it became apparent that new supplies and additional storage would have to be obtained the first step was the organization of the provo prove river water users association on may 2 1935 followed by the formation of the metropolitan water district of salt lake city august 15 1935 these organizations were necessary to contract with the united states government for repayment of project costs the main features of the project are deer creek dam and reservoir the salt lake aqueduct the duchesne tunnel and the weber provo diversion canal deer creek reservoir stores water from five sources provo river flood waters in wet years when the river flow exceeds appropriated rights a small exchange supply equivalent to return flow of project water applied on irrigated lands and recaptured in utah lake surplus water from the weber river and surplus water from the north fork of duchesne river more than 70000 acre feet of water is diverted yearly from the weber river and 30000 acre feet from the duchesne river the project water of 100000 acre feet annually is subscribed to by members in the provo river water users association deer creek reservoir has a capacity of 152000 acre feet which exceeds its annual yield by 52000 acre feet this extra capacity permits the holding of water in surplus years to make up for shortages in drouth years although flood control features were not provided for in the project plan the reservoir has effectively reduced flood damage occurring around utah lake and along the provo and jordan rivers the flood threats in may 1969 were reduced by the effective use of the flood control features of this reservoir water was released earlier in the year so that the high runoff could be stored and released later so as to avert any flooding the main water supply for this project is the water that is imported from the colorado river basin and the weber river water in the north fork of the duchesne river which is a tributary to the green river is diverted through a six mile tunnel and emerges 18 miles east of kamas to flow into the provo river system the first contract to construct this tunnel was awarded in 1940 because of world war 11 II construction stopped in 1942 with less than half the tunnel being completed after the war ended construction did not resume until 1949 and the tunnel was finally completed in december 1952 this tunnel now imports 30000 acre feet of water annually under the project plan the bulk of the water for the project comes from the weber river the construction to enlarge the existing weber provo diversion canal began in 1941 and it was also delayed because of the war and later completed in 1948 the canal has a capacity of 1000 cfs cs which provides about 70000 acre feet of water each year to the project another important feature of the project is the 41.7 417 417 mile salt lake aqueduct this 69 inch diameter aqueduct conveys water from deer creek reservoir to the metropolitan water districts modern little cottonwood water treatment plant where it is processed to make it potable the water then continues through the aqueduct to a 40 million gallon terminal reservoir reservoir at 3300 south and wasatch boulevard in in salt lake city about 3.5 35 35 miles of the aqueduct is in the alpine draper and olmstead tunnels the project also provided for the enlargement of the old murdock canal which is now known as the provo prove reservoir canal the canal extends from the mouth of provo canyon where a new diversion dam was constructed by the project to jordan narrows and beyond to the vicinity of magna utah the canal was enlarged from a capacity of 230 cfs cs to 550 cfs cs this is the canal by which the central utah water conservancy ser vancy district will deliver bonneville unit water from the central utah project to salt lake county the provo river water users association of which the metropolitan water district of salt lake city is a member has contracted to repay the construction cost of all facilities |
| Identifier | http://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/WesternWatersProject/id/1439 |
