By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
There should be some water from the CUP project for
residents of Juab County.
"At this minute, we are still optimistic," said Wm. Boyd
Howarth, commission chairman. "We are still optimistic. We
just talked to a high-up politician and he is working on
it."
Merrill Carter and Buddy Phillipsen, two residents of the
county, attended commission meeting to ask commissioners why
county residents were still paying taxes for the Central
Utah Water Project if no one in the county was to
benefit.
He said individual tax payers were also paying a tax for
the Juab Water Conservancy District, as well as CUP. On his
particular tax bill, for example, said Carter, he was being
charged $134 this year.
Meanwhile, he had been reading in the newspapers that the
county was not going to get any water from the project.
"When I had a business," said Carter, "if I was not going
to get something, I quit paying for it."
Commissioners, however, agreed that some water, although
not the original amount promised, will still come to Juab
County and will be of benefit to all residents.
There was agricultural water and water for industry and
culinary purposes, said Howarth. The latter is known as
I&D (industrial and development) water.
"We still believe there is a fight to be fought," said
Neil Cook, commissioner. "There is still a fight going on
behind the scenes and that is all I am going to say."
It was true, said Robert Steele, commissioner, that the
original amount set to come to Juab County had been cut.
Water was taken from the county back with Governor Matheson
was in office.
At one time, said Steele, it was proposed that Goshen Bay
be dried out and the water from there be put into Utah Lake.
Juab County is to receive water from Utah Lake.
Matheson did away with the Goshen Bay project and, as a
result, the water proposed for Juab County was cut by 50
percent.
"That was a done deal," said Steele. "It is also true
that the water has been being moved to the north of the
state."
Nevertheless, he said, the commission is still working to
bring water to Juab County.
"We hope we don't have to go to court, but if we do, we
are prepared," said Steele.
He agreed with the rationale of Carter and Phillipsen,
said Steele. If the county was not going to get water, they
should not have to pay taxes and they should get recompense
for what had been paid.
"With all the water they take away, we pay more in
taxes," said Carter.
Phillipsen said the area needed the water.
"They are building lots of homes here," he said.
Eventually, the water needed for those homes would be a
critical issue. Perhaps, he suggested, the county should
hire a water attorney to see to the interests of the area's
residents.
"We are the last project," said Howarth. "But we are
still optimistic that we will get water."
The aquifer was being affected, said Phillipsen.
"The big well on 200 West used to shoot water 10-feet,"
he said. That was no longer the case. Farmers in the area
could see the difference, as well, with wells not producing
water as they used to do.
East Juab does not have any water storage facilities,
such as reservoirs, to keep water run-off. When the snow
melts, there is no place to keep that water for future
use.
"We have to turn water to waste," said Steele.
That was done to protect sensitive species such as the
June Sucker and was part of the negotiations with
environmentalists because the habitat for the species was in
Utah Lake and its tributaries.
Howarth repeated that the commission was still fighting
the fight.
"There is still opportunity. It is not a dead duck," he
said.
Carter told Howarth that: "They were fighting this fight
before you were a politician."
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