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Show WATER IN THE BASIN With some parts of our country coun-try abpu to be flooded away, and other farm lands burning up, it would seem to be an appropriate ap-propriate time for a little discussion dis-cussion of our water development develop-ment problems. It has come to my attention recently that we don't all have he same ideas or the same feelings feel-ings toward the present planning plan-ning being done by our federal and state planning agencies, with respect to future beneficial use of the waters of the state, and particularly of our Uintah Basin area. Anyone who' has had occasion to cross our Basin rivers the past week have seen quantities of water leaving the Basin, and the state; enough to have filled a reservoir the size of Moon Lake (our largest) every 48 hours. i This same thing happens about 9 out of 10 years. We have been living in this section of the Uintah Basin now nearly 50 years, and have done, I believe, be-lieve, about all that we were j capable of doing to develop a dependable full season water supply for our lands. We have put under cultivation in the entire Basin around 150,000 acres of land. Possibly 10 of these acres are reasonably sure of a full season water supply The other 90 having) water on an average of from 20 to 90 days to try to keep their crops and pastures growing during a I season of around 180 days, j Now after 50 years we have under control between 50,000 and 60,000 acre feet of stored water or roughly 1-3 of an ! acre foot of water for all cultivated cul-tivated and pasture lands. Only a small part of the storage cost for this water has been paid for. Thro'ugh various soil surveys we are told we have around 50,000 acres of additional land that could, and should be irrigated. irri-gated. Let's concede that there are a few small storage possibilities possibil-ities left that we could develop without state or federal help. (Personally, I don't know of any.) In order to' approach the maximum max-imum agricultural development of our area, we have a long way to go. Shall we make an effort to reach that goal and keep the next generation of our boys here with us? If so, how shall we go about it? To' those of us that now have a fair water set-up. I would suggest that we decide here and now to make the very best use of the water available to us. In my opinion our only hope is to actually cooperate with the presently established planning agencies of our state and federal government, namely the Utah Water and Power Board and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, as well as your Utah Water Users Us-ers Association, the National Reclamation Re-clamation Association and your own Duchesne County Water Users Association. Let's hear from more of our water users. H. C. ALLRED, Pres. Duchesne County Water Users Ass'n. To Whom It May Concern: Does there have to be tragedy in a community before the people peo-ple wake up? On Wednesday, the 17th of June, there was a fire just outside of Roosevelt, just one mile outside. The Fire Department was called, but the caller was informed that the help couldn't foe given because it was outside of the city 'lim- its.' Well, so is the Union High School half way out of the city limits. Does that mean that if the Union High School burns that the fire would have to blow over to the west side of the building before help would be given? The world is suffering now because people, who confess to be Christians cannot be bother ed to help another in distress. If this were really a Christian community wouldn't everything in a man's power be done to give a ' neighbor the assistance needed? The pioneers helped one another and they didn't care who paid taxes on time and labor. Why should we? If it's a question of paying for every service rendered then it's time to take a good look at ourselves and find out where we are headed. There were men at the fire who were very wonderful with the help they gave and sacrafice of time and trouble was made by all of them. Thanks to all who were so kind. As for the Fire Department incident well use your own judgment. It may be your property next and then it will be too late. Find out now who and what is under the protection of the Fire Fighters. Sincerely, Mrs. Erie B. Hatch, Roosevelt. Utah |
