- A contentious water dispute is playing out over a reservoir in the Sevier River watershed and respective parties are digging their heels in.
- In a state that has been decimated by drought for over two decades, water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity.
- Agreements inked years ago about water storage and use are now under contention, and could be headed for mediation.
At a meeting of the Utah Water Development Commission earlier this week, commission members tried to dissect the cantankerous issue of water storage in Garfield County at the Tropic Reservoir and its downstream recipient of Otter Creek Reservoir.
Amid an ongoing drought in always arid southern Utah, water disputes tend to put people in corners, ready for a fight to the last drop.
“My dad once told me that two people equally informed seldom disagree,” said Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield.
“But it seems like a drought brings out the worst in everybody.”
Albrecht described the current dilemma involving a “napkin agreement” inked in the 1960s.
The agreement that sparked the dispute involves how much water the Otter Creek Reservoir Company can legally store in Tropic Reservoir during the winter months.
A formal application for the storage in dispute was filed with the state in 1977 and granted in 2005, allowing Otter Creek Reservoir Company to hold onto 3,000 acre-feet of water in Tropic between Oct. 15 and April 15.
But that agreement lapsed because “proof of use” had not been filed with the state within the required timeframe, the state engineer’s office said.
Even though it had lapsed, Otter Creek continued to hold back the 3,000 acre-feet of water as had been done for years, but now that has changed. It is now less than 600 acre-feet of water available because of a lapsed agreement. That affects Tropic users.
State Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen said absent the agreement or an enforceable change application filed with her office, there exists a legal right to only store 540-acre feet of water in Tropic. The rest must be released.
That puts Tropic users in an untenable spot.
While that is a tough call to make, a reliance on water rights doctrine puts painful steps in motion.
Albrecht said the Sevier River is 106% utilized — meaning there is no water left to give.
He noted that a drop of water in the Sevier River drainage is used seven times. It is self-sustaining, but only to a point.
“It is the most efficient river in the United States, maybe the world.”
That makes everyone want their share.
“I am not happy about this at all,” said Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock.
Pollock said in the middle of a drought, Tropic Irrigation was ordered to drain the reservoir — twice.
“Why did we build a dam? It is a mystery to me.”
Pollock said Utah is being “California stupid” when it comes to storing water in an area starving for moisture.
Tawn Mangum, president of the Tropic and East Fork Irrigation Company, said the storage limitations are posing severe challenges.
“We are choking down here. We can’t store water until June, the snowpack is gone by then. There is no snow to store.”
The tortured water history in this saga
The Sevier River is the longest river that begins and ends in Utah, traveling close to 400 miles.
Otter Creek Reservoir is downstream from Tropic Reservoir and receives water from the Sevier River.
Pollock insists the state Division of Water Rights asserts the water that is allocated is the legal right for water allocated for Otter Creek, but reality is a different matter.
“The water never makes it to Otter Creek Reservoir,” he said. “It goes underground and then reappears.”
“That would have to make it magic water.”
But water right holders downstream from Tropic Reservoir depend on that water — including Piute Reservoir, Sevier Bridge Reservoir (Yuba) and users in Sevier County. The water is used in the system, but Tropic only has so many rights.
In good water years, there is ample water storage. But the last few years have put that to the test.
“At Otter Creek, we are pretty sympathetic to Tropic because we are all in this lifestyle,” of agriculture, said Matt Mills, president and chief executive officer of the Otter Creek Reservoir Company.
“This is not a fight between Otter Creek and Tropic Irrigation. This time of year to try to run water through John’s Valley is a joke. It is just not happening.”
But Pollock wonders why you let a reservoir drain during the winter during the storage months when you will need that water for irrigation.
The quandary comes from Tropic’s legal right to store water in that system and an order called the Cox decree that spells out those rights.
Commissioner Warren Peterson pointed out the state engineer’s office is following its duties and obligations as spelled out in the Cox decree issued by a judge.
Anything else would upend water law and appropriation rights, he said.
“We have to make sure we are working within that system,” he said.
The saga will continue as the Utah Division of Water Rights comes under increasing pressure to solve the problem, which may have no short-term resolution in sight.
Albrecht said he wants the “onus” put on the division to get the matter settled. When it comes to water rights, that is not an easy task.
Wilhelmsen said her office is working with both parties in the dispute to come to a resolution.