Utah is seeking title to canal

WASHINGTON — Officials thought it would be wise — and not too hard — to transfer the federal title of some water projects to local agencies that had already paid for them over time. But one "easy" test case required eight years to navigate the red tape.

So federal, state and local officials all called for reforms to speed the process in a hearing Wednesday before the House Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power.

Utah is interested because local groups are seeking such a title transfer of the federally built Provo Reservoir Canal, also known as the Murdock Canal, to more easily allow financing for burying its entire 23-mile length to prevent recurring drownings.

Two brothers who died scuba diving last September are among at least 14 people who have drowned there in the past 20 years.

To secure tax-advantaged bonds to finance the improvements, the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City and Sandy has said it would need title to that land held by the federal government. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, has introduced legislation to order that transfer. It is one of three transfers now pending before Congress.

Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., said such transfers make sense — as do much larger ones transferring entire dam-and-reservoir systems — but the administrative hassle needs to be cut to expedite them.

"For the local water users, title transfer means cost control, less paperwork and a new ability to leverage additional financing opportunities not available through a federally owned facility," he said.

"For the federal government, it generally means reduced liability and costs and a better utilization of resources," he said. "While it all makes sense on a theoretical scale, it hasn't often translated to a practical level. It took up to eight and a half years to transfer a project some described as 'low-hanging fruit.' "

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John W. Keys III, a Utahn, said his agency has managed to make 16 such transfers since 1996. He said he initiated a study to identify lessons learned by all parties involved.

"As a result of the study, Reclamation has since gone through many important changes" to streamline processes, he said, but it still must sort through tangled legal requirements from doing environmental impact statements to evaluating financial impact of the transfers.

He said his agency is developing such things as ways to exclude some simple transfers from requirements for major environmental studies, developing a set of standard financial evaluation criteria and forming teams to handle each transfer.

He also suggested that most successful transfers "have relied on a simple plan: identify as many obstacles and deal with them prior to the introduction of legislation authorizing the title transfer."

He suggested that Congress consider allowing his bureau to transfer some types of facilities without needing Congress to pass a separate bill for each.

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