By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A permanent change application for
High Meadows Subdivision was rejected by he
state.
Jerry D. Olds, P.E., State Engineer
and Division Director, sent a letter to Mona City Council
members informing them of the rejection of the application
by O'Sullivan investment L.C., Sandy.
"The change order was rejected,"
said Rory Nielson, council member. "I still want to see them
use their 11 shares of irrigation water."
Olds said that after the notice of
application was published in the local paper on Sept. 28,
two protests were received. One was from the United States
Bureau of Reclamation and the other from the Mona Irrigation
Company.
"The protests expressed concern
that the underlying water right not be enlarged by approval
of the change application," said Olds in the
letter.
The change application, the protest
and the underlying water right were all reviewed by the
state engineer.
"The diligence claim was filed in
1992 and is somewhat ambiguous regarding the location and
number of acres that have been irrigated under the claim,"
Olds said.
The use is listed as 80 acres
however, the map provided with the diligence claim shows
approximately 51 acres in four 40-acre tracts.
"A careful examination of the
information on file indicates that the 51-acres shown on the
map must be the correct place of use," he said.
The source had been listed as
"Swasey Pond" aka, "Half Mile Spring."
Swasey Pond is located east of
Currant Creek . It cannot supply water to the west side of
the creek which means that only a portion of the 80-acres
can be irrigated and, also, the west side of the creek is
covered by other water rights.
The original diligence claim
indicates the water was divided equally into thirds. Each
one-third covers 17-acres of irrigation,
The change application is based on
a portion of the north one-third of the diligence claim
owned by Erma Keyte, Marjorie Newren and Carol Lange at the
time of filing.
The one-third of the diligence
claim was then transferred to Lorin P. Davis and Elizabeth
Ann Davies and then to Jay W. Garlick.
Garlick then deeded portions of the
water right to several other parties.
"Since there are really only 17
acres of water right, only the first three grantees received
the entire acreage deeded to them," he said.
The fourth grantee, Jimmie
McWilliams, received nine acres because that is all that was
left from the original acres.
The last three grantees and Garlick
are left with no water rights at all under the original
diligence claim.
"The applicants for this change
application, O'Sullivan Investments L.C,. are seventh on the
list and thus have no interest in the original diligence
claim," said Olds.
The change application, therefore,
would have to be rejected because the applicants are not
"entitled to the use of water" under the rules of the
section of Utah Code governing change orders and in order to
prevent enlargement of the underlying water right, he
said.
The order of the state engineer of
the Department of Natural Resources of the Division of Water
Rights will mean that water cannot be transferred as
hoped.
It was proposed to divert 25.00
acre-feet of water from an existing 16-inch 567-feet deep
well. It was proposed that the nature and place of use of
the water be changed to municipal use within the boundaries
of Mona City.
The water was stored in Swasey Pond
from January 1 to December 31 and was used for irrigation
from May 2 to October 3.
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