By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Local water officials have saved taxpayers $216.5 million
dollars by pre-paying a federal loan.
As it commemorates its 40th anniversary this year, the
Central Utah Water Conservancy District has much to
celebrate. One of those is the money saved by pre-paying a
loan.
Another is the purchase of Geneva Steel water.
A third is the anticipated construction of the final leg
of the Central Utah Project slated to bring $72 million in
income to Utah Valley and another 101,900 acre-feet of water
annually to Utah Lake.
That is of interest to Juab County residents because some
of that water is slated for Mona Reservoir.
Anxious to get its hands on cash, the federal government
made a special deal with the Orem-based Central Utah Water
Conservancy District, agreeing to forgive $47.1 million of
the $217.6 million principal balance, as well as $169.4
million in interest in exchange for a lump-sum cash payment,
said district spokeswoman Chris Finlinson.
To get the cash, conservancy officials floated a $170.5
million bond in the private bond market, she said.
"We're going to save almost a quarter-billion dollars for
the taxpayers of the district," she said. "We have now
repaid all our existing federal debt for the Central Utah
Project."
The district is funded with federal money and a property
tax levy paid by the residents of 10 counties, including:
Juab, Utah, Garfield, Piute, Salt Lake, Summit, Wasatch,
Duchesne, Uintah and Sanpete.
The district made a similar lump-sum payment of $128
million in 1998.
The latest bond issue actually consists of several bonds,
some at fixed rates as high as 5 percent and some at
variable rates.
The last bond will be paid off in 2034.
The interest rates are lower than the federal rates the
district had been paying, but even if the new rates had been
higher, the government's willingness to forgive $47 million
in principal would still have made it a good deal.
Recently, a bankruptcy judge approved the $88.5 million
sale of Geneva Steel's water rights to the Central Utah
Water Conservancy District, as a political subdivision of
the state and a wholesaler of water to other cities.
The sale encompasses 48,500 acre-feet of water, which
amounts to about half of the volume of water that is
delivered annually out of Deer Creek Reservoir.
The transaction represents one of the largest transfers
of water rights in the state's history.
"We think it's a great opportunity for the district,"
said Finlinson, "When you look at the cost of developing
water and bringing the water down from the mountains, this
is a tremendous bargain."
The Central Utah Project first began in 1956 and will not
be completed for at least another 15 years.
When completed, the project will deliver 31,000 acre-feet
of water to south Utah County cities, 30,000 feet to Salt
Lake County and 40,000 into Utah Lake as an exchange for
water stored in Jordanelle Reservoir, according to
information released by the Department of the Interior.
Some of the water would flow down the Spanish Fork River,
and some would be piped to Hobble Creek, Provo River and
Mona Reservoir to benefit June sucker habitat.
An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, enough to
supply an average family for one year.
The pipelines will connect to the Central Utah Project
pipeline finished earlier this year, which runs from above
Strawberry Reservoir to the mouth of Spanish Fork
Canyon.
The district's General Manager Don Christiansen is proud
of the utility's achievements. In 2003, the CUWCD became the
second utility in the country to achieve the Phase IV
Partnership for Safe Water Award.
The CUWCD has grown steadily in the four decades since it
was created to operate the Central Utah Project. The
federally mandated project was part of the Colorado River
Storage Project to develop western water sources. The CUP
was established to develop and transport water from the
southern slope of the Uintah Mountains to the state's most
populated region.
According to the recently released final environmental
impact study produced for the U.S. Department of the
Interior by the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation
Commission and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District,
the proposed Utah Lake System project can expect to receive
about $460 million in federal funds and local cost-sharing
money to construct five pipelines and two power facilities
in Utah County.
The increased flow will be 192 percent higher in the
Provo River will expand and improve the recreational fishing
and help the endangered June sucker fish that is dependent
on spawning grounds in the local river.
The new pipelines, which are the last part of six systems
of the Bonneville unit of the Central Utah Project launched
in 1973, would be built in Utah County to receive water from
Strawberry Reservoir via the Diamond Fork distribution
system.
The power generation facilities would be put at the Sixth
Water Flow Control Structure and at the Upper Diamond Fork
Flow Control Structure.
Under the preferred option there would be: a Spanish Fork
Canyon pipeline; a Spanish Fork/Santaquin pipeline; a
Santaquin/Mona Reservoir pipeline; a Mapleton/Springville
lateral pipeline; and a Spanish Fork/Provo Reservoir canal
pipeline.
Construction activity is expected to create between 800
to 1,190 jobs and result in $72 million in direct income and
$79 million in indirect money for Utah County.
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