Abstract: Water shortages are expected in the Upper Colorado River Basin because of increasing water demands for various uses. Ground-water supplies can help to reduce water shortages but ground-water reservoirs have not been studied in detail. The regional aquifer systems analysis of the Upper Colorado River Basin is a study of the major ground-water resources of the region. Aquifers occur in the sedimentary rock sequences in basins and uplifted regions, in volcanic-rock regions, and in stream-valley alluvium. The project work will include collection and compilation of existing geologic, geophysical, hydrologic, and geochemical data. These data will be used to assess the hydrologic characteristics of the aquifer systems and to estimate the hydrologic effects of discharge from, or recharge to, selected aquifers.

From introduction: The purpose of the investigation was to compile and interpret available hydrologic data, with principal emphasis on the hydrologic relation of the water resources with respect to the salt deposits, in order to serve as a basis for more detailed evaluations of potential repository sites.

Purpose and Scope: The purpose of this report is to describe the regional hydrogeologic systems in the Blanding-Durango area and to establish their relationship to help assess salt as an effective storage medium for radioactive wastes. Interpretations are based principally on existing data; however, well inventories, phreatophyte mapping and stream-flow measurements were made during 1978, 1979, and 1980.