What Utah politicians fretted about and tried to avoid for years is finally happening: The Central Utah Project is bumping into its legal spending limit.

That is turning off the faucet for federal funds - and has cost the CUP about $15 million that it likely otherwise would have had in President Bush's new 1993 budget, administration officials say.Utah's members of Congress have tried unsuccessfully for years to pass a bill to extend the CUP's credit with the government to finish the decades-behind-schedule project. The CUP will bring water from eastern Utah to the thirsty Wasatch Front and farmlands in southern Utah.

"This shows we absolutely need the bill passed this year," said Don Christiansen, general manager of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the local agency that oversees CUP operations. The project is being built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Christiansen's agency requested $45 million or so total for CUP construction and development in fiscal 1993, said Donald Dean, chief of the financial development division of the Bureau of Reclamation's Upper Colorado Region.

But he said administration officials in Washington ruled that about $15 million of that request was for work beyond the limit authorized by Congress - so it was stripped from the budget.

But had the delegation's bill passed, the extra $15 million would have easily been within limits. Dean added that until the bill passes, the CUP is essentially at its legal limit and no new contracts for projects not already under way can be issued.

Bush's budget ended up proposing $29.6 million total for the CUP in 1993 - only half the $58 million it received in 1992. Bush's budget includes $23 million for ongoing construction of the huge Jordanelle Dam near Heber.

"That's enough to finish Jordanelle," Christiansen said. "It is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 1993."

He said the funding is also sufficient to proceed with the Sixth Water Aqueduct, which will help connect Strawberry Reservoir with water distribution systems in Spanish Fork Canyon and beyond.

"We'll be able to complete the CUP's M&I (municipal and industrial) water system. But we won't be able to complete the I&D (irrigation and drainage) portions - and we need to," Christiansen said. He added that money for environmental mitigation and settlements for Indian water rights will also be stalled.

"Whether you're an environmentalist, a farmer, an Indian or a water user, it's important to all those groups to get the bill passed," Christiansen said.

The Utah delegation has high hopes that it soon will be. Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, late last year held hostage all Senate Energy Committee bills until he obtained promises to allow the CUP bill to proceed early this year.

The CUP bill itself is not controversial, but it has been attached by House leaders as a "hostage bill" to very controversial bills proposing reform of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Valley Project in California.

Garn is trying to strip it and other "hostage" proj-ects away from those bills.

Garn said Wednesday, "Passing the reauthorization bill for CUP is my No. 1 priority during my final year in office."

*****

(Additional information)

Other Utah water projects

Following is funding for other water projects and Interior Department efforts in Utah, for which the Interior Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released details late Wednesday:

- $3.3 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finish the Little Dell Dam east of Salt Lake City.

Nick Sefakis, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake, said the dam is scheduled to be completed in December. Because of delays, its costs have grown to $57.9 million. The original estimate was just $49.3 million. Sefakis said his agency is protesting the added costs.

- $6 million for the Bureau of Reclamation to improve Utah's Folsom Dam.

- $3.9 million for the same bureau to also rehabilitate portions of the Weber Basin Project.

- $1.26 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to repair flood damage at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge near Brigham City.

- $1.2 million for the Bureau of Reclamation to rehabilitate and improve the Ogden River Project.

View Comments

- $616,000 for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for work at its White Sands Recreation Site near St. George. That includes correcting hazards along its access road and its campground, resurfacing roads and upgrading sanitary facilities.

- $549,000 for the Fish and Wildlife Service to install the Pelican Lake pipeline at its Ouray National Wildlife Refuge.

- $500,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct surveys of the condition of the Sevier River and its tributaries.

- $100,000 for the Bureau of Reclamation to finish improvements of the Hyrum Project.

Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.