Introduction
Red Creek Reservoir is a medium sized reservoir north of Fruitland in the Uinta
Basin. It is an impoundment of Red Creek, a tributary to the Strawberry River.
It is relatively close to the Wasatch Front and offers summer recreation.
It was created in 1960 by the construction of an earth-fill dam.
The dam leaked, so a grout curtain was installed in 1964. The reservoir
shoreline is 100% privately owned. In addition to recreation usage, reservoir
water is consumed entirely for irrigation No changes are anticipated in the
foreseeable future.
Recreation
Red Creek Reservoir is easily accessible from US-40 in Fruitland. Turn north on
the road across the street from the Fruitland store/gas station and continue for
about seven miles. The road essentially terminates at the reservoir. There are
no services at the reservoir, but gas and supplies are available in Fruitland.
The area is entirely private land. You are a guest here, so treat the area with
due respect. Any camping should be done such that there is minimal impact to the
area.
Watershed Description
Red Creek Reservoir has a moderate size natural watershed. The reservoir is in
the rolling hills of the Uinta Basin, but the headwaters of the watershed are in
the foothills surrounding the Uinta Mountains. The foothills are
hogbacks--ridges formed by inclined strata surrounding the large dome of the Uintas.
The watershed high point is Red Creek Mountain at an elevation of 10,595
ft above sea level, thereby developing a complex slope of 6.6% to the reservoir.
The average stream gradient for Red Creek is 3.9% (206 feet per mile). Two miles downstream much of the creek is diverted into
an irrigation pipe to irrigate crops in Fruitland. The natural watershed is
consists of undulating low
mountains, while the diverted watershed is made up of high mountains and glacial
valleys.
The vegetation communities consist of spruce-fir, oak-maple, pinion-juniper, and
sagebrush-grass. The watershed receives 16 - 30 inches of precipitation
annually. The frost-free season around the
reservoir is 40 - 80 days per year. Land use is essentially 100% private grazing
land and recreation. Summer home development is taking place in the watershed,
resulting in increased pollution. This watershed is excluded from the Uinta
National Forest, but the boundary is a series of north-south and east-west
lines, so some of the forest is in the watershed. This forest land is multiple
use.
Limn logical Assessment
The water quality of Red Creek Reservoir is good. It is considered to be
hard with a hardness concentration value of approximately 248 mg/L (CaCO3).
Those parameters that have exceeded State water quality standards for defined
beneficial uses are total phosphorus and dissolved oxygen. The average
concentrations of total phosphorus in the water column for 1992 was 138 ug/L
which exceeds the recommended pollution indicator for phosphorus of 25 ug/L. The
phosphorus concentration in the hypolimnion averaged 219 ug/L for the same
period. Dissolved oxygen concentrations in late summer substantiate the fact
that water quality impairments do exist. As depicted in the September 2, 1992
profile, concentrations ranged from 7.5 to 4.3 mg/L downward in the water
column. The reservoir was monitored on March 15, 1991 to determine if anoxic conditions were present under ice coverage. The profile at that time indicates
that anoxic conditions were present in the lower portions of the reservoir. With
a maximum depth of 11 meters the dissolved oxygen was 3.4 mg/L at a depth of 5
meters with near zero conditions from 8-11 meters. These conditions support the
fact that there is a large demand in the hypolimnion at the sediment interface
for oxygen indicative of large accumulation of organic material usually from
high productivity over an extended period of time. The 1992 data suggest that
the reservoir is currently a nitrogen limited system. TSI values indicate the
reservoir is highly eutrophic with relatively high concentrations of phosphorus
present. The reservoir has not been stratified during any recent monitoring
trips. Even though sufficient depth is available in the reservoir, recent
drought conditions and early drawdown due to irrigation requirements has not
allowed a thermo cline to develop. According to DWR no fish kills have been
reported in recent years. The reservoir supports a populations of rainbow trout
(Oncorhynchus mykiss). The DWR stocks the reservoir annually with 15,000
fingerling rainbow trout. The lake has not been treated for rough fish
competition, so populations of native fishes may still be present in the lake.
The phytoplankton community is dominated by the presence of blue-green algae
species indicative of eutrophic conditions and limited water quality.
Pollution Assessment
Nonpoint pollution sources include the following: sedimentation and nutrient
loading from grazing; wastes or litter and from recreation; and sediments from
construction associated with the development of summer homes. Grazing takes
place throughout the watershed and long the shores of the reservoir. There are no point sources of pollution in
the
watershed.
Beneficial Use Classification
The state beneficial use classifications include:
boating and similar recreation (excluding swimming), cold water game fish and
organisms in their food chain, and agricultural uses.
Reservoir Administrators
Red Creek Irrigation Company 548-2317
Their are a few Pictures of the Reservoir located here