By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County Commissioners did not agree to give up CUP
water when they met with members of the House committee to
give testimony on the question of whether the project water
should still come to East Juab County.
"We said that what we wanted, more than promises, was
real wet water," said Wm. Boyd Howarth, county commission
chair.
He and David Leavitt, county attorney, traveled to
Washington D.C. recently to give testimony before a House
subcommittee in hopes of bringing water from the CUP to Juab
County.
"They give you five minutes to bear testimony," said
Howarth. "After that time you are stopped."
Anticipating the cut-off, the commission drafted
written comments to be entered into the committee's records
in addition to the testimony Howarth gave.
Leavitt said, rather than giving up plans to have CUP
water in Juab County, the commission stated that they
expected water from CUP.
"The truth of the matter is that we do want water from
the project just as it has been promised for decades," he
said.
The Committee on Resources's Subcommittee on Water and
Power held the Legislative Hearing on H.R. 4129 on April
24.
A Senate subcommittee hearing was held on June 6.
Leavitt and Howarth attended the hearing to give
testimony that east Juab County still wanted water delivered
through CUP.
The committee conducted the hearing on H.R. 4129, in
which it is proposed "to amend the Central Utah Project
Completion Act to clarify the responsibilities of the
Secretary of the Interior with respect to the Central Utah
Project, to redirect unexpended budget authority for the
Central Utah Project for wastewater treatment and reuse and
other purposes, to provide for prepayment of repayment
contracts for municipal and industrial water delivery
facilities, and to eliminate a deadline for such
prepayment."
Witnesses invited to give testimony were: Bennett W.
Raley, Assistant Secretary, Water and Science, Department of
the Interior; Don Christiansen, General Manager, Central
Utah Water Conservancy District; Randy A. Brailsford, Mayor
of Salem City, State of Utah; Margaret Peterson, Council
Member, West Valley City Council; Leslie James, Executive
Director, Colorado River Energy Distributors Association;
Bob McMullin, President, Strawberry Water Users Association;
and William Boyd Howarth, Chairman, Juab County Commission.
McMullin said that SWUA is a nonprofit corporation
organized in 1922 primarily for the purpose of contracting
with the United States Bureau of Reclamation to repay to the
United States the remaining unpaid construction costs of the
Strawberry Valley Project (SVP), and to provide a water
supply to approximately 2,800 SWUA shareholders, including
south Utah County cities.
SWUA repaid to the United States all of the costs of
construction of the SVP in 1974. He said the Strawberry
Valley Project, with Strawberry Reservoir as its key
feature, was a forerunner of the larger Central Utah
Project.
"Because south Utah County (and Juab County) has
always been a dry spot in a desert state, SWUA and its
shareholders have been among the very first, and the very
strongest, supporters of the Central Utah Project (CUP),"
said McMullin.
In the spring of 1945, studies on obtaining additional
water for the Strawberry Valley Project were begun. The plan
was expanded to cover the same area that was considered in
the Colorado River-Great Basin Project, and the name Central
Utah Project was given to the proposal .
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD)
was formed in 1964 as the local entity that would repay the
local share of the CUP. Since the mid 1960s, south Utah
County and Juab County residents have been paying property
taxes to CUWCD to support the CUP but had yet to see
significant benefits.
"From the beginning of the CUP it was anticipated that
south Utah County and east Juab County irrigators would be
provided CUP water and water infrastructure," he said.
During the construction of Jordanelle Reservoir as
part of the "M&I System," a feature of the Bonneville
Unit of the CUP, south Utah and east Juab County residents
were asked to agree to wait to receive CUP benefits until
last.
"A solemn promise was made by all levels of federal,
state and local officials and leaders that the patience,
cooperation, support and sacrifice of the south Utah County
and east Juab County people would never be betrayed. They
would never be left out of the CUP," said McMullin. He
said CUWCD has now said that it will take most of the CUP
water promised to south Utah and east Juab Counties to Salt
Lake County, outside the Utah Lake Drainage Basin.
"Frankly, SWUA could and would swallow a bitter pill
and quietly accept the loss of the promised irrigation water
if the majority of the authorized $125 million were used to
provide water conservation and efficiency infrastructure to
help south Utah and east Juab Counties make their very short
water supply go farther."
McMullin said that CUWCD is instead before Congress
seeking authorization to use all of the $125 million
originally intended "for the construction of alternate
features to deliver irrigation water to lands in the Utah
Lake Drainage basin" to deliver municipal water to Salt Lake
County, outside the Utah Lake Drainage Basin.
He said a subsection of H.R. 4129 contains two changes
which accomplish this.
First, the words "to lands in the Utah Lake Drainage
basin" would be removed to make it clear that the authorized
funds could be used to deliver water outside the Utah Lake
Drainage basin.
Second, the proposed amendment would add the word
"municipal" in front of the word "irrigation" to make it
clear that the authorized funds would be spent on "municipal
irrigation," not agricultural irrigation.
"These changes would completely exclude irrigators,
and would in addition, give CUWCD the discretion to exclude
the Utah Lake Drainage basin, that is, south Utah and east
Juab Counties, completely," he said.
"There are four principal reasons why you should
reject CUWCD's efforts to deny south Utah and east Juab
Counties CUP water and CUP water infrastructure," McMullin
said.
First, he said, solemn promises should be kept.
Second, section 206 of CUPCA contains a clear
principal of equity that was intended to protect against
unfair distributions of CUP benefits.
Third, a key part of the CUP is the
Strawberry/Jordanelle Exchange. "This makes it possible for
CUWCD to lawfully store waters of the Provo River in
Jordanelle Reservoir."
Lastly, much of Salt Lake County is dense, urban or
suburban sprawl.
"South Utah and east Juab Counties have only begun to
plan and grow. With CUP water, both municipal and
agricultural, south Utah and east Juab Counties have the
opportunity to create small cities near preserved
agricultural land" said McMullin.
He said that with improved infrastructure, the CUP
could serve the interests of all south Utah and east Juab
County residents&emdash;farmer and city dweller alike.
|
