AREA 21 - UPPER BEAR RIVER

Updated: April 4, 2011

  MANAGEMENT

Two Proposed Determination of Water Rights books have been published. The Summit County book was published in 1950 and revised in 1962, and a final decree was issued in 1964. There is one state-administered distribution system in this area: the Bear River Distribution System. Because this area is part of the Bear River basin, the conditions of the 1955 Bear River Compact and the 1990 Amended Bear River Compact apply. Click here to see statistics for this area.

  SOURCES

Surface and Ground Water - Available supplies of both surface and ground water are limited. Generally, only domestic filings for in-house use are approved. Other diversions and uses must be accomplished by change applications filed on owned or acquired existing rights. Changes from surface to underground sources, and vice versa, are also considered on their individual merits, with emphasis on their potential to interfere with existing rights and to ensure that there is no enlargement of the underlying rights. Non-consumptive use applications, such as hydroelectric power generation, will be considered on their individual merits.

  GENERAL

Applications are advertised in the Summit County Bee or the Montpelier, Idaho News Examiner. Filings that may involve the diversion of water in Utah for use in Wyoming (export) would be subject to the special criteria the statutes require for such projects. The general irrigation diversion duty for this area, which the State Engineer uses for evaluation purposes, is 3.0 acre-feet per acre per year. The consumptive use requirement is determined from the publication Consumptive Use of Irrigated Crops in Utah, Research Report 145, Utah State University, 1994, unless the applicant submits other data for consideration. This area is administered by the Northern Regional Office in Logan.

Other requirements

The Water Right applicant is strongly cautioned that other permits may be required before any physical development of a project can begin and it is the responsibility of the applicant to determine the applicability of and acquisition of such permits. In order to avoid delays and ensure that Water Right approvals conform to applicable local ordinances, applicants should contact local governmental entities in advance to determine what ordinances are in place that affect the proposed project and to make sure that Water Right filings conform to those ordinances. The approval of a Water Right application does not imply any approval of a project by any other governmental entity. Approval of the project proposed in the Water Right application should be obtained from local governmental entities as necessary to implement a project.

  REFERENCES

No Water Rights publications specifically cover this area.

  MODELING

None available.

  PREVIOUS PAGE UPDATES

None available.

Policy area in green,
click on the map for more detail

  DESCRIPTION

This area covers two reaches of the headwaters of the Bear River. The first begins in Summit County (T1S) and extends northward from the crest of the Uinta Mountains to the Wyoming state line (T3N). The second reach encompasses some intermittent streams in Rich and Summit Counties (4N to T7N) that flow eastward to the main stem of the Bear River in Wyoming. It is bordered on the north and east by Wyoming, on the south by the Uinta Mountains, and on the west by the Weber River drainage. The highest point in the area is 12,479 foot Hayden Peak, while the lowest is where Crane Creek enters Wyoming at about 6,730 feet, giving a total relief of about 5,750 feet.