Pipeline among Utah water options

A pipeline from Lake Powell to St. George and a new project to divert water from the Bear River are important to the state's future, according to Gov. Olene Walker.

The projects would be expensive, members of Walker's newly created Water Delivery Financing Task Force learned Monday at its first meeting. Combined cost for the two was estimated at $800 million.

Walker established the task force on Oct. 26, charging it to take account of "all reasonable revenue sources and financing, including bonding" to pay for the projects. On Monday she noted that Utah's development is tied to how the state develops its water and said now is the time to address funding for the two projects.

"Your charge is not to decide where, when, how or even if these projects should come to be," she told the task force, according to a prepared statement. "Instead, given the working assumption that these projects need to be built in the next two decades, how should they be financed?"

Edward T. Alter, the state treasurer and a member of the task force, said afterward that the group tried to lay out the magnitude of the problems facing Utah in developing "the last two water sources that are available" for major projects.

The Bear River's resources and the state's legal allocation in Colorado River water rights, represented by a portion of the water in Lake Powell, are "the last two water sources that are available" for big projects, he said.

"The question is, how can that much water development be affordable to a state when they're both going to come on at the same time?" Alter said after the meeting.

The projects will require a commitment of funds well in advance of when the water is expected to be needed. The task force believes that need will be evident around 2020.

The combined price is "something on the order of $800 million," with the exact amount depending on several unknowns. Those include how the projects are built, how much inflation will take place and other factors, he said.

Meanwhile, environmental analysis, engineering and construction can take 10 years or more. The 15 years before water is needed seems like a long time, but Utahns need to start putting together financial mechanisms that will let the state afford the projects, he said.

The task force will continue meeting to come up with a plan to achieve the goals. Members hope to prepare a report with some answers in July 2005.

Its next session is set for Dec. 20.