Farmers in southern Utah and Juab counties should get the irrigation water they need from Strawberry Reservoir, a Utah legislative committee recommended Monday.
The State Water Development Commission's near-unanimous vote isn't the final word, however. A task force will review the project and advise Gov. Mike Leavitt on how the water should be used when an environmental impact statement is prepared next spring.Members of the water development commission on Monday supported sending water south, a promise that many water officials argued was made in the 1960s. The commitment is strong despite the Legislative Auditor General's suggestion that CUP officials take a second look at whether water should be sent north to the rapidly growing communities of Salt Lake and Utah counties.
The commission also dismissed a plea from Duchesne County for 15,800 acre-feet of water to help meet its needs.
The CUP should honor its original commitment, said commission member Ron Thompson, general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District. "It will provide a promised water benefit to a region that has been taxed for CUP water since 1965."
CUP is a federal plan that diverts a share of Utah's Colorado River water to the Wasatch Front.
Zach Frankel, conservation director of the Utah Rivers Council, scoffed at the recommendation, coming from a commission made up of the state's major water districts.
"It's ridiculous. It's absurd," he said. "Asking the State Water Development Commission to decide whether to send CUP water to Juab County is like asking Chicken Little what to do about the sky."
At issue is a controversial plan that would deliver over 100,000 acre-feet of water from Strawberry Reservoir to Juab County and the south part of Utah County. The water would be diverted from the Uinta Mountains through the Diamond Fork system of tunnels and pipelines linking Strawberry Reservoir to Spanish Fork River, which is part of the overall $2.3 billion CUP project. Pending final approval by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District plans to begin work on Diamond Fork this spring and compete the system by 2003.
Juab and Utah county farmers have contributed $1.7 million to building the system, said Juab County Commissioner William Boyd Howard. About 250 farmers would benefit from it.
"We were promised to get some share of that water; that's why we paid the property tax assessment," said Utah County Commissioner Jerry Grover.
But there was no guarantee, argued Darrell Mensel, executive director of the Utah Outdoor Interests Coordinating Council and member of the state water commission. "There's nothing in the legislation to send the water to Juab County."
He said he supports the audit's recommendation to look at other options.
State Agriculture Commissioner Cary Peterson said the plan is crucial to protect agricultural lands. He said 10,000 acres of existing dry land could use the water. "This is prime agriculture land with one shortfall -- adequate water supply."
But the greater need for the water is Salt Lake County, which is eyeing the Bear River as its next major source of water, said Frankel. If Strawberry water is sent north, there would be no need for building proposed dams on the Bear River -- and those dams would destroy 3,000 acres of prime farmland in Box Elder County and completely wipe out the town of Elwood.
David Ovard, the director of the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, disputed the notion that a bigger allocation of CUP water would diminish its need for Bear River.
"It's an outright lie," he said. The Bear River water will be needed to meet Salt Lake County's future after 2010. "If the (CUP) water is available we'd take it," he added, "but it only represents a half-year's worth of growth."