e The Times-News, Nephi, Utah

 

 

96 South Main Street, PO Box 77, Nephi, Utah 84648 - Voice: 435 623-0525 - FAX: 435 623-4735
On our front page this week
July 28, 2021

 

 

By Myrna Trauntvein
TN Correspondent

“Why are you sending a million dollars to St. George?”

Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD) was represented at Juab County Commission meeting by: David Pitcher, P.E., Assistant General Manager, Rich Tullis, P.E., Assistant General Manager, D. Gerard Yates, Water Quality and Treatment Manager.

Richard Hansen, Juab County Commission Chairman, asked the hard question of the CUWCD leaders during their appearance at commission meeting.

“We didn’t send money,” said Pitcher.

The Utah Rivers Council and ten other Colorado River Basin organizations, on July 15, requested a federal investigation into the use of federal funds by the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, or CUWCD.

CUWCD is the state’s largest water supplier, and it has received more than $800 million from Congress for the Central Utah Project (CUP), a water project which in part is geared toward promoting water conservation.

The organizations allege that over $1 million in CUWCD funds has been given to private firm Finlinson & Finlinson, owned by the family of the CUWCD’s Assistant General Manager Christine Finlinson.

The firm has advocated for the Lake Powell Pipeline with members of the Utah state legislature, according to a letter sent to the Office of the U.S. Inspector General.

Previously, on June 30, the Utah Rivers Council filed a complaint with the Utah Attorney General’s Office seeking an investigation of alleged potential conflicts of interest between high-powered water lobbyists with family relations to executive staff of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.

Zach Frankel, director of the Rivers Council, said these lobbyists actively fought against meters for secondary systems, among other conservation efforts.

In its June complaint, the nonprofit said the provisions killed by the lobbyists could have saved 1.5 million acre-feet (488.8 billion gallons) of water, roughly equivalent to five years of water use in the Salt Lake Valley.

Yates shared the Press Statement addressing the 11 Groups Asking for Federal Investigation of Utah’s Largest Water Supplier.

“The Central Utah Water Conservancy District complies with all federal reporting and auditing provisions of the Central Utah Project Completion Act (CUPCA) which expenditure reports are transparent to the public,” reads the statement. “All federally appropriated funds have always been used solely to provide safe, clean, reliable water to our contract holders. Mr. Frankel’s baseless allegations are entirely without merit.”