WAITING FOR WATER • These
sprinklers west of Nephi are put away for the winter,
but if certain forces have their way,water for more
irigation systems from the CUP ,long promised to
residents of East Juab County, may instead be routed
north for the suburbs of Salt Lake County. A meeting
to gather input from citizens will be held in Provo on
Feb. 27th and in West Jordan on Feb. 28th. Both
meetings begin at 6:30 p.m.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
For more than 50 years, the plan was to bring more
Strawberry Reservoir water to south Utah County and on
to Juab and Millard counties.
The project was once called the Spanish Fork To
Nephi System. The proposal involved a large project
that was built a little at a time.
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is
continuing to gather input from the public and plans
its last scoping meeting Feb. 27 at the Provo City
Library and Feb. 28 at the West Jordan City Hall, both
beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The water conservancy district board will then
decide which direction the water will go, north or
south.
"If the water goes north," Spanish Fork City
Engineer Richard Heap said, "we'll have to rely on
wells." The final lap of the precious water journey
has been a fight.
The CUP project consisted of a $312 million
proposed series of tunnels and pipelines planned to
deliver 127,400 acre feet of water annually to south
Utah County and Juab County.
However, plans and times change. That long-standing
concept was scrapped in October 1998 amid opposition
from several Salt Lake County governmental and
environmental fronts.
Since then the entire plan has been
re-evaluated.
The plan back in 1948 was to construct, as a last
leg of the proposed water delivery system, a water
pipeline to bring needed water to the Mona and Nephi
area.
As time has passed, it has become a fight to bring
water south.
It is hoped that a study will show that south Utah
County has a serious need for the water to meet growth
demands. If so, the study will help the area's case
with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.
The U.S. Geological Survey says Utah County has
enough water for all those holding paper water rights,
Heap said, but city officials in the southern part of
the county want more specific information regarding
adequate water for their communities.
Salt Lake County municipalities want more of the
water and Utah County officials need to add to their
arsenal to bring Central Utah Project water south,
rather than north to Salt Lake County.
Still up for grabs is 15,000 acre feet of
water.
"We still want water through that pipeline," Heap
said.
Heap proposed to the South Utah Valley Municipal
Water Association they hire a consultant to do a south
Utah County water study.
The association is made up of representatives from
each south Utah County city appointed by their
respective mayors.
Salt Lake County municipalities, including the
Jordan Valley Metropolitan Water District, already
have a contract for much of the water as part of a
Utah Lake exchange with Jordanelle Reservoir water,
Central Utah Water Conservancy District spokeswoman
Chris Finlinson said.
The flow is through Diamond Fork pipeline to the
Spanish Fork River and on to Utah Lake.
"Construction on the Upper Diamond Fork Tunnel
project is continuing," Finlinson said.
The tunneling project suffered a setback when work
crews digging a tunnel ran into increased levels of
highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas after a cave-in. The
gas was first detected last October but work stoppage
occurred in January.
"The Upper Diamond Fork project is to complete the
water delivery system from Strawberry Reservoir to the
Wasatch Front," she said.
The water project is the last part of Wasatch
Front's CUP plan, a $3 billion effort to retain Utah's
share of the water that would normally flow into the
Colorado River.
The first tunnel through the mountains from the
Summit County reservoir to Utah County was completed
in 1916, bringing fresh water to the farms and
neighborhoods of Spanish Fork and surrounding
communities. The latest pipeline effort, now making
its way through Diamond Fork Canyon, has south Utah
County mayors concerned that the water may not end up
in their region after all.
It may, instead, be routed to the Murdock Canal and
go north to Salt Lake County.
Since 1948 it was intended to bring the water
south.
The property has already been purchased to lay the
pipeline at least to Santaquin.
"I don't know whether we will have much opportunity
to make comments at the scoping meeting," said Wm.
Boyd Howarth, Juab County Commission Chairman.
Nevertheless, he said, it was important for
residents of Juab County to attend the meeting in
Provo to indicate support for assuring that water from
the final phases of the originally planned CUP project
are delivered southward.
"We need the water flow to come south as it was
originally planned," he said.
So far, Juab County Commissioners agreed, some of
the water should eventually end up in Juab County.
"We could, possibly, get several thousand acre feet
from the project," said Joseph Bernini,
commissioner.
"A certain portion of the water from the project
should end up in East Juab County," said Robert
Steele.
There is still time to make public comment for the
record, said Steele. Public comments concerning the
need for water from the long-planned project being
delivered to Juab County can still be addressed to the
Central Utah Water Conservancy District offices in
Orem.
