By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A public hearing on the proposal by PacifiCorp to
allow the company to drill water wells near Mona will be
held on Thursday, Dec. 11.
The meeting has been scheduled for 10 a.m. In the
Payson City Council Chambers, 439 West Utah Avenue in
Payson.
All interested persons, whether they have pre-filed a
comment or not, are invited to attend the meeting.
"We (commissioners) wrote a letter supporting the
proposal," said Wm. Boyd Howarth, commission chair. "We all
plan to attend the hearing."
PacifiCorp, W.W. Ranches, Kaysville, and Utah and Salt
Lake Canal company, West Valley, are all named as
participants in the application to change the point of
diversion for the water needed for the power plant
PacifiCorp is proposing to build near Mona.
The water to be used by the power plant originates on
Mt. Nebo, east of Mona. It is proposed that two wells be
drilled near I-15 to allow water which flows in Currant
Creek to be piped to the power plant.
"We have been warned, in a letter from the state, that
the hearing may be conducted in conjunction with other water
right hearings," said Howarth. "Some of those hearings may
exceed the time limit anticipated so we may be there longer
than the expected time."
Not all Juab County residents are thrilled with the
proposal to change the way water comes to the power
company.
"If wells are drilled in the valley," said Doran Kay,
Mona city counci lmember, "it may have an effect on the
water aquifers. That would have an effect on the city and
the agriculture of this area."
Mona City and the Mona Irrigation Company have both
filed letters of protest with the State of Utah Department
of Natural Resources Division of Water Rights.
Letters filed with the state division of water rights
came not only from the Juab County Commission, Mona City,
and Mona Irrigation. Others filing were North Canyon
Irrigation Company, USA Bureau of Reclamation, Mary Billiter
Young, Essential Botanical Farm, Provo River Water Users'
Association, and Warm Springs Irrigation and Power
Company.
Some of those letters are in favor and others in
opposition to the desire of the utility company for a change
in the point of diversion which is, essentially, a change in
the way the water is obtained and the place it is obtained
from.
PacifiCorp leadership wants construction to start by
mid-January so the first phase of the plant will be
operating by June 2005.
The company needs to start placing 1,600 to 1,700
piers to provide a concrete base for the facility's
foundation by mid-January in order to have the plant ready
in June 2005 to meet that summer's electricity needs.
In order for that to happen, approval from all state
agencies needs to be in place by Jan. 13.
The first phase would provide 288 megawatts of
electricity and help the company meet a 1,055-megawatt
shortfall projected for the summer of 2005.
"The plant would provide enough to power for 144,000
typical homes," said Robert A. Van Engelenhoven, P.E.,
PacifiCorp manger of Resource Development.
The utility's plan for the 525-megawatt, natural
gas-fired plant, called the Currant Creek power project,
pegs the cost at $350 million. PacifiCorp has said that is
$320 million less expensive than the next-best bid it
received, although some bidders dispute that.
PacifiCorp hired Stone and Webster, a Louisiana-based
engineering and construction firm, to design and build the
project.
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