Central Utah project, N central Utah; begun 1959 near Vernal, Utah, by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in conjunction with the Colorado River storage project. Water, collected from streams in the Uinta Mts., is carried across the Wasatch Range to the densely populated Salt Lake City region by a system of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, aqueducts, and canals. Strawberry Dam and Reservoir, in which the water is stored, provides water for domestic and industrial use, irrigation, hydroelectricity, fish and wildlife preservation, and flood control.