Six years of construction and controversy were capped off Saturday at the dedication of the Jordanelle Dam, which at $114 million came in on time and within budget.
The 300-foot-tall earth and rock dam will eventually impound 320,000 acre-feet of water for farming, recreation, flood control and culinary use, a keystone in the Central Utah Project.Although the weather at Saturday's dedication was raw and blustery, the mood was light as a dozen state and federal officials spoke to a crowd of about 100 guests.
Many noted the criticism the dam had sparked from environmentalists and the safety concerns that its construction also raised. But, as Claude Hicken, a Central Utah Water Conservancy District board member, noted, water has always been the source of controversy in Utah.
"Water has the tendency to bring out the worst and the best in people," Hicken said, "both conflicts and cooperation. And Jordanelle has had its share of both."
State engineer Robert Morgan, speaking for the governor, noted that "everything earthly possible has been done to make sure this structure stays here. Now that's done, we have to deal with the equitable distribution of the water, which always sparks a heated discussion in Utah."
"Five years ago, there was a significant question whether this dam would be built," noted Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, going through the list of funding, environmental, safety and other problems the project engendered.
All of the questions were met head on, Hatch said, adding that strong bipartisan support from Utah's congressional delegation over the project's life span was vital for its funding and political life.
"They made the right choice five years ago," said keynote speaker Daniel P. Beard, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. He described the dam as an example of state-of-the-art construction, the result of collaboration by national and international consultants.
"This represents our hope for the future, a future dedicated to prosperity and peace," said Beard.
In his dedicatory prayer, President Thomas S. Monson, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, noted that during the project's five years of day-and-night construction, involving hundreds of workers, none had been seriously injured.
The dam used 14.5 million cubic yards of clay, gravel and rock in its construction. The reservoir behind it, at 3,068 surface acres, will eventually be 1.5 times the surface size of Deer Creek Reservoir and hold more than twice the amount of water.
The dam is 300 feet high, the same height as the Utah State Capitol building, but another 100 feet are buried underground in its foundation. It is 1,000 feet wide at its base, tapering to 40 feet at the top.