By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
Who has the rights to Rosebush Spring? This question is
still unanswered and still a very hot topic with Levan Town
council and the Levan Irrigation Company.
Golden Mangelson, president of the irrigation company,
offered a stipulated judgement for the council to consider.
He said that it would be an opportunity to settle the case
out of court.
The two entities are in dispute over a claim on water in
Rosebush Spring. The town filed a diligence claim on the
water after being told by the state that nobody owned it.
The irrigation company says that they have the claim on the
water and that the town filed on it illegally. He said the
only way to fight the diligence claim was in a court of
law.
According to Mr. Mangelson, he feels the diligence claim
is inaccurate and what it does is ask for more water than
the town has. He said the state engineer, on the last issue
of water use by the town on Cobble Rock Spring, put a writer
on that and said under no circumstances was the town to
increase their water right above the current water
right.
He felt the town applied for an additional flow of water
that did not belong to them,but belonged to the irrigation
company.
Mr. Mangelson stated that the judgement would have the
court adjudicate the water rights of the town and the
irrigation company. He said that this judgement explains
that the town should have a right to Rosebush Spring, and
should be able to take .78 of a second foot from the spring,
if they want to, as well as taking that amount from Tunnel
Spring or the town well. The other water right the town
could use would be from Cobble Rock Spring which already
belongs to Levan Irrigation Company. He also stated that if
the town uses that water then it should be replaced at the
head of the irrigation system.
He feels that this stipulation agreement will correct the
discrepancy and lay out the rights of the town and the
irrigation company and adjudicates them so that the town has
the opportunity to take the water out of those sources and
the irrigation company holds the rest of the water in
Chicken Creek.
Ryan Aagard stated that according to the State of Utah,
Levan, right now, holds the right to Rosebush Spring and
doesn't need to have the permission of the irrigation
company to use the water.
"According to Mr. Forebush (state engineer), the claim
right now is legal and binding," Mr. Aagard said. "Why in
the world would Levan, who is sitting on a 1.25 water right
want to go to court to get a .78 water right?"
Mr. Aagard said that he knew a water attorney in Salt
Lake City who could look at the issue and make an informed
opinion as to what the town should do. He said this attorney
would give the town his advice on how to pursue this
matter.
He said that the attorney told him he would charge the
town $1,500 for his services. Mr. Aagard felt this was money
well spent if it cleared up the whole dispute. He also said
that if the attorney came back and said that the town had no
right to file on the claim then he would drop the whole
issue.
If the two parties fight this matter in court, then it
will cost the residents of Levan a considerable amount of
money. Most people present at the meeting agreed with Mr.
Aagard in hiring an attorney to look over the claims. They
felt that this issue needed to be taken care of as soon as
possible.
The original claim by the city was made in August of
2001.
The crowd persuaded the Mayor and councilmen Paul
Mangelson and Ralph Brooks to vote for the town to hire a
water attorney, up to $2,000, to look into the matter.
Councilman Rod Wankier did not vote due to a time
conflict.
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