Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1475-M Ground-Water Resources of the Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

The Bryce Canyon National Park needed about 1.3 million cubic feet of water for about 250,000 visitors in 1957 (table 3). According to the Mission 66 estimate, water facilities will have to be provided for about 500,000 visitors a year (fig. 51). To evaluate water sources, a hypothetical future requirement of about 5 million cubic feet of water per season was used.

Possible sources of water for the park facilities include (1) surface water from the East Fork of the Sevier River, (2) water from wells in alluvium in the valley of the East Fork or in East Creek valley, (3) water piped up from springs below the Pink Cliffs, and (4) water from one or more wells drilled into bedrock.

Wells in the alluvium of East Creek valley could be an important source of water but not the sole source of water for the park. Although the potential quantity available is small, the quality of the water is good and quite satisfactory for all uses in the park. The low pumping lift to the storage tanks (372 ft) of the Utah Parks Co. makes this source of water a very desirable one. Sufficient water is available from this source to meet all but peak tourist-season needs; during periods of peak demand an additional source is needed.

Of the springs below the Pink Cliffs, only springs in the Yellow Creek area are considered, because of their proximity to the park facilities, and because other springs that are not so close are lacking in either yield or quality. The Yellow Creek springs are dependable and yield water satisfactory in quality and adequate in quantity to supply all water needs created by any foreseeable expansion of the park.

A well drilled to the top of the Tropic shale (about 2,000 ft) should penetrate one or more aquifers in the Wahweap and Straight Cliffs sandstones, and perhaps one at shallower depth at the base of the Wasatch formation. A well drilled on the plateau about 1-1/2 miles northwest of Yellow Creek Spring (pl. 24) would lie near the axis of an anticline and might penetrate rock made relatively permeable by tension cracks.