A nod for CUP project could stay Bear River's

Approval of the last segment of the Central Utah Project may mean that development of the Bear River Project can be delayed a few years, according to a report given to the water delivery financing task force.

That would be good news for backers of a proposed pipeline from Lake Powell to St. George, the other project the state task force is considering. If the pressure is reduced for quick construction of the northern Utah project, the project in the south may proceed sooner.

On Dec. 22, 2004, R. Thomas Weimer, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior for water and science, signed an approval selecting the Spanish Fork Canyon-Provo Reservoir Canal alternative to complete the Utah Lake System, the last segment of the CUP.

The segment involves an annual diversion of 101,900 acre-feet of water, with 30,000 acre-feet earmarked for municipal and industrial water in southern Utah County and 30,000 acre-feet of municipal and industrial water to Salt Lake County water treatment plants. A hydropower plant, substation, transmission facilities and several pipelines are part of the project.

David G. Ovard, general manager of the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, projected that with the approval and other projects, the need for Bear River Project water might be put off until 2025 to 2030.

The 30,000 acre-feet from the Utah Lake System that is headed to the north would be split among the Jordan district and the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy.

"It pushes the Bear River back on our planning horizon by probably 15 years," Ovard told the Deseret Morning News this past week.

Water from the Bear still will be needed but not as quickly.

Still, steps remain with to be completed the CUP, including obtaining federal funding that is programmed. Most likely, that water won't be available until about 2015.

Other projects also must go ahead on schedule to meet the region's water needs, such as a groundwater remediation project involving Kennecott that could provide 8,000 acre-feet and a wastewater recycling project involving sewer districts.

The committee voted to ask the Legislature to look at ways to help fund the Bear River and Lake Powell projects.

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