The Central Utah Project bill pending in the House of Representatives is one of the most ticklish compromise pieces of legislation ever, according to Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah.
"If I have ever seen a case of if it doesn't make it now, it never will, this (CUP) is it," Hansen told the Intermountain Community Power Association board of directors Thursday.Hansen does not consider the bill a good piece of legislation, he said, but feels it is the only proposal that stands a chance of passage given the current mood in Congress.
As written, the bill would provide sufficient funding to complete the CUP's Bonneville Unit, which includes the Jordanelle Dam and additional culinary water for the Wasatch Front. Hansen said the bill should also settle differences with the Ute Indian tribe and construction of some long-promised irrigation and drainage facilities in southern Utah.
"We're (the Utah delegation) just hoping no one breathes on it," Hansen added.
The bill is unusual because it is the coalition product of environmentalists, water users and power producers, all of whom are affected by the CUP, Hansen said. No one gets everything they want, but it does contain consensus agreement.
Despite that consensus, Hansen said, the bill faces a stiff floor fight in the House. If it survives, the going should be easier in the Senate, where Senators Orrin Hatch and Jake Garn, both R-Utah, have been working hard to generate support, Hansen said.
"A lot of people have held their nose on this bill, they just don't like it," Hansen said. "But, I think it's the best we can do."
He said water users in Southern California would love to see a blood bath, one that destroys the coalition among states in the upper Colorado River basin. "They'd love to have that water. If we don't use it, it flows to them," Hansen said.
On another issue related to the Colorado River and federally owned hydro-electric power, Hansen said the environmental lobby is likely to win the battle to control water flows out of Glen Canyon Dam. Hansen said it is highly unlikely that variable flows will ever again be allowed out of the dam because of the contentions that such flows are damaging areas of the Grand Canyon.
Hansen said he thinks the environmental lobby is the strongest in Washington, D.C., and that it is extremely difficult to prevail in those areas. He said a bill that would create development buffer zones around national parks would virtually close southern Utah. Add to that proposed legislation concerning the endangered species list and wetlands areas and U.S. business finds itself in difficult straits.
Despite the cloud of gloom, Hansen said, he believes some good may come out of this session of Congress. He said there are some good pieces of legislation in the mill and the end result of the environmental legislation might contain beneficial compromises.