OREM — Farmers and towns depending on Central Utah Project water won't feel the pinch of drought as severely as some other Utahns will this year.
Richard L. Tullis, operations and monitoring manager for the project, said last week the water-supply outlook was good for its users.
However, CUP directors got some bad news during last week's meeting: A 6,700-foot section of the Diamond Fork Tunnel — a water-diversion feature that ran into trouble including a collapse, too much water and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas — has been abandoned.
Tullis said CUP reservoirs are in much better shape than most Utah reservoirs.
"We're not yet under full demand" from all the entities who will want water deliveries once the project is finished, he said. "We don't have all of our customers yet falling for water."
Also, the water-rights situation at Utah Lake improves water availability for the CUP.
Not only is the full allotment available to CUP customers, but some will get more than the usual amount to make up for losses they face from other sources affected by the drought, he said.
The CUP is "working exactly like it's supposed to," Tullis said. During dry seasons "we deliver more water than normally we do. In wet years, we deliver less . . . in some cases, much less."
If the drought were to continue another year, CUP water users would be all right, he said. Reservoirs are nearly full now, so the situation would be the same as if a drought were just starting, and the system is designed to get users through dry years.
"It's working just as planned," Tullis said.
What's not working as planned is the Diamond Fork Tunnel. The unusable portion was blocked by a set of 25-foot concrete plugs. A bypass tunnel is to be constructed instead.
"It simply wasn't practical to complete the project," Lee Wimmer, CUP completion act manager, told the board. The hydrogen sulfide gas was combining with the copious amounts of water pouring through the excavation to form sulfuric acid.
About 13,400 feet of the tunnel will be used, while 6,700 feet will be abandoned. Negotiations are going on about the cost of the change.
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