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96 South Main Street, PO Box 77, Nephi, Utah 84648 - Voice: 435 623-0525 - FAX: 435 623-4735 On our front page this week April 28, 2021 |
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By Myrna Trauntvein The Central Utah Project (CUP) will never deliver water to Eureka and the mayor and residents there want to be released from paying a further penny in tax money to Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD). Janet Larson and Jim Larson, both from Eureka, and Nick Castleman, Eureka Mayor, met with the Juab County Commission to make the request. "We would like to form our own water district," said J. Larson. "Eureka will never see a drop of water from that project." On April 28, the CUWCD was having a meeting and he wanted to be there, said Castleman. If any commissioners would like to attend, he would appreciate that. Byron Woodland, former commissioner, was still the county board member for CUWCD and the commission agreed to talk to him. Richard Hansen, commission chairman, and Marvin Kenison, commissioner, both agreed that back tax money paid should be restored to the county. Kenison said that many people had been disappointed in the promises made when Juab County decided to be part of the CUP project and then the years dragged on and on and there was no sign of water ever coming to the county. “I would like to turn it over to our county attorney, Ryan Peters, to look at the project and see what we can do to get the entire county out," said Clinton Painter, commissioner. "They should pay us back taxes. We have paid into CUWCD for more than 30 years." The Central Utah Project is a US federal water project that was authorized for construction under the Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11, 1956. Castleman said that he had been speaking with a construction person working for CUWCD and had been told that a line would be brought from Goshen to Mona. "What I would like to do," said Castleman, "is quit paying into CUP and take that money and pull the water through a well into the Utah Lake aquifer." He said, as mayor, he was asking CUWCD for 2,000 gallons of the promised 10,000 out of Utah Lake to go toward that project. Eureka could then pump the needed water into their system. They could drill down 600 feet. "We would pull out of CUP and would no longer pay taxes to the CUWCD," he said. "So far, those I have talked to say it sounds like a good idea but they have no authority to make that kind of decision." He would, however, like permission from the county commission to pursue that result. If they drew water from Chief #2 mine, the city would be in the Sevier River drainage. "Why they drew that line that way, I don't understand," he said. Castleman said that it also didn't make sense for Goshen to get the water from Juab County. Water going there followed the natural flow from Mount Nebo to the valley and then was put into Mona Reservoir. "It just doesn't make sense," said Hansen. Because of that, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would never agree to a dam being built to store water from Salt Creek. "After paying taxes for so long, we deserve to be approved for water from Utah Lake," said Castleman. What should happen for the east side of the county, he said, was that the water going to Goshen should be used by Juab. The Central Utah Project Completion Act (CUPCA) enacted on October 30, 1992, removed responsibility for completing CUP, a federal water project, from the United States Bureau of Reclamation. For the first time in history, Congress designated a local entity, the CUWCD, as the planning and construction entity for a major Federal water project. As originally planned and authorized, CUP consisted of six units or sub-projects: the Bonneville Unit, the Jensen Unit, the Vernal Unit, the Uinta Unit, the Upalco Unit, and Ute Indian Unit. Water was planned for Juab County and residents began paying taxes to go toward payment of the project. Water from Strawberry Reservoir should have come to Juab County. Instead, over the years, water in Utah Lake was reserved for the county. CUWCD dropped the portion that would bring water to Juab County, however, county commissioners have held to the hope that the promised 10,000 acres of Utah Lake water would flow to Juab County. "We have been paying taxes on the promise of water for the past 30-plus years," said Painter. "I don't see us getting any water." He said that even the promised water in Utah Lake was not really there because its available water was already being used. There was no excess. "They tell us the water is reserved but it is not actually deliverable. We will not be able to afford the water if they did bring it into the county," said Painter. Hansen said that Nephi City leadership had indicated that they had enough water for now and for the future. He had been told that, before water was even considered for the Juab area, CUWCD would need to talk to cities and find out if they wanted the water and were willing to pay for it. "It will be quite expensive and maybe none of them can afford it," he said. In 1965, there were promises made that water would come to Juab County and the county opted in and began paying a portion of the property tax to the project. In 2003, the district's property tax rate rose to 0.0004 up from 0.000345 and cost the average home owner about 42 cents a month. In 1960, the then-newly formed conservancy district promised to deliver 42,300 acre-feet of water to Juab County. The district collects property taxes in Utah, Garfield, Piute, Juab, Salt Lake, Summit, Wasatch, Duchesne, Uintah and Sanpete counties and provides water to six of the 10 counties it encompasses.
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