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General Description
The Price-San Rafael Rivers Unit is located in east-central Utah, 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, encompassing Carbon and Emery Counties. Agriculture and energy development (primarily coal mining) make up the principal economic base in the area. Both the Price and San Rafael Rivers drain into the Colorado River via the Green River.
Salinity contributed to the Colorado River from the Price River and San Rafael River basins occurs principally as a result of the dissolution of soluble salts in the soil and substrata. Return flows from irrigation and runoff from precipitation transport salts to natural drains and eventually into the streams and rivers. An estimated 430,000 tons of salt per year reach the Colorado River from these two river basins. Of this amount, approximately 60 percent is attributed to agriculture.
Project mitigation in the Price-San Rafael Rivers Unit area is a joint effort between Reclamation, the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), and Utah Power and Light (UP&L). UP&L has donated riparian habitat to the Utah Division of Wildlife for the replacement of habitat losses incurred by the Salinity Control Program. Reclamation and UDWR will develop these lands for habitat replacement. UDWR will own and maintain the properties. The UDWR is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in developing its habitat replacement plans.
Reclamation is currently implementing plans under the authority of Reclamation's new Basinwide Salinity Control Program (Public Law 104-20). Proposals currently being evaluated combine the Reclamation and USDA programs of irrigation improvements. Water pressure developed by piped laterals would be used to run sprinkler irrigation systems. Proposed actions would also eliminate winter water from the canal system by installing a rural domestic water distribution system. This would be similar to the winter water program in the Lower Gunnison Basin Unit.
Investigations
Reclamation evaluated five alternative plans:
- Improving irrigation systems
- Using drain water for powerplant cooling
- Collecting saline water and disposing of it through deep-well injection, evaporation ponds, or a desalting plant
- Using saline water for energy development (coal washing, tar sands, or coal slurry pipeline)
- Retiring land from irrigation.
Of these, the irrigation systems improvement alternative passed the four tests of viability (completeness, effectiveness, efficiency, and acceptability).
A joint Reclamation/USDA planning report and final environmental impact statement was completed in December 1993.
Reclamation has accepted several cost-effective proposals in the Price-San Rafael Rivers Unit Construction cooperative agreements have been completed and funds obligated to begin construction on all proposals. The projects are being funded by Reclamation's Basinwide Salinity Control Program and cost sharing from the Basin States. |
