S.L. County plan calls for upgrade of Jordan River

MURRAY — On a quiet little bend of the Jordan River, a local resident out for a morning stroll looks across the water as a flock of geese flies by. A wooden path meanders across the banks just yards away from the Kennecott Nature Center.

Not all of the banks of the Jordan River are this peaceful and clean. Just down the road, trash litters the banks, and the water is uninviting.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon wants to fix that, and on Wednesday, he announced an initiative to improve water quality across the Salt Lake Valley.

"Unfortunately, parts of the Jordan River have become the cesspool of Salt Lake County, and that needs to change," Corroon said.

Cleaning the river banks is just a sliver of the goals of the three-year plan, which will cost more than $500,000 by completion. Cities in Salt Lake County are collaborating in the plan, as well as water districts in the area. The countywide water plan is the first update in nearly 30 years.

Six different goals are on the wish list for the Water Quality Stewardship Plan, including improving the water quality in county streams, developing wastewater planning procedures and evaluating the effects of Utah Lake and irrigation canals on water quality. The plan also calls for restoring and protecting stream channels and banks, increasing preservation of stream corridors and groundwater recharge areas, and developing strategies to evaluate stream flows.

"With the population of Salt Lake County soaring to more than 1 million last year, the need for ongoing and short-term planning for one of our most valuable resources becomes even more urgent," Corroon said.

The new watershed plan will just set guidelines and strategies to protect the watershed, not mandate law, said Kelly Nichols, a consultant by a firm hired by the county to serve as program managers, Stantec Consulting. Once the plan is completed, local municipalities can then establish laws.

David Eckoff led a group that put together the county's previous water-stewardship plan back in 1978. That plan resulted in two accomplishments that residents can see today: The county now has a few regional wastewater-treatment plants, instead of multiple ones in individual cities across the valley; and the 1978 plan created a countywide water-quality agency.

"I didn't expect it would take 30 years to get this thing re-done," said Eckoff, who now serves on a blue-ribbon panel of experts advising leaders on the new water stewardship plan.

The county plans on updating the plan every five to six years with new goals, said Neil Stack, director of engineering for the county's public works department.

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