CUP could be boon and bane to Utah County

PROVO — It's anticipated that construction of the final leg of the Central Utah Project will bring $72 million in income to Utah Valley and another 101,900 acre-feet of water annually to Utah Lake, but it could also bring problems.

According to the recently released final environmental impact study produced for the U.S. Department of the Interior by the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the proposed Utah Lake System project can expect to receive about $460 million in federal funds and local cost-sharing money to construct five pipelines and two power facilities in Utah County.

But along with the jobs, increased fishing opportunities and extra water for Utah, Salt Lake and Wasatch counties, the preferred plan is expected to hurt crop rotation, create some eyesores and degrade water quality in the Spanish Fork River.

It would probably bring a significant increase in water rates as well.

However, the increased flow — which will be 192 percent higher in the Provo River — would expand and improve the recreational fishing area and help the endangered June sucker fish that is dependent on spawning grounds in the local river.

The new pipelines, which are the last part of six systems of the Bonneville unit of the Central Utah Project launched in 1973, would be built in Utah County to receive water from Strawberry Reservoir via the Diamond Fork distribution system.

The power generation facilities would be put at the Sixth Water Flow Control Structure and at the Upper Diamond Fork Flow Control Structure.

Under the preferred option there would be:

• A Spanish Fork Canyon pipeline

• A Spanish Fork/Santaquin pipeline

• A Santaquin/Mona Reservoir pipeline

• A Mapleton/Springville lateral pipeline

• A Spanish Fork/Provo Reservoir canal pipeline

The additional water would decrease phosphorus levels in Utah Lake by 3.2 tons per year but increase those levels in Hobble Creek and the Spanish Fork River. A dozen small wetlands would be temporarily lost during construction. A little over two acres of wildlife habitat would be lost.

Leatherside chub in the Spanish Fork River would, however, be significantly impacted, as would the Castilla Warm Springs.

Forty-three acres of rotational crop land would be temporarily impacted and 15.4 acres of orchard property permanently affected.

Slope cuts, site grading and new structures would change the appearance of the Diamond Fork and Sheep Creek areas.

On the plus side, construction activity is expected to create between 800 to 1,190 jobs and result in $72 million in direct income and $79 million in indirect money for Utah County.