Prison's use of hot springs leaving others in the lurch

Four groups have gotten into hot water.

Since the Utah State Prison began tapping into Crystal Hot Springs in 2003, the geothermal water table has dropped for other users including Bluffdale Flowers, Hi-Tech Fisheries and Crystal Springs Fisheries, leaving the latter, which doesn't have a well, high and dry.

To top it off, confusion still exists among some of the groups about who owns all the below-ground water rights.

Still, the Utah Energy Office reported that within the area's 70-acre surface that manifests hot springs, there is more than enough water to go around, as long as it is managed well.

Rain and snowfall in the mountains feed the geothermal system as it descends through fractures, which continually break open along the active Wasatch fault, giving the water ample opportunity to circulate to deep levels, said Bob Blackett a senior geologist with the Utah Geological Survey. Eventually, the hot water becomes more buoyant and returns to the surface in alluvial outflow areas — typically near the bases of mountain ranges where there is lower pressure.

Steve Davis, owner of Crystal Springs Fishery, is one of the area's longest current users of geothermal water. His family-owned-and-operated business, has been one of the nation's leading suppliers of tropical fish to pet shop distributors for 30 years.

Hot springs flow into a two-acre lake near his fishery allowing him to raise African cichlids — a variety of freshwater tropical fish — in water that closely mimics their native Lake Malawi's temperature and mineral content. The geothermal water rises from the ground at roughly 180 degrees, but cools to the optimal 80 degrees when it mixes with the water in Crystal Lake.

But the lake's temperature has dropped continually since the prison first began pumping water, Davis said. The estimated 500,000 to 1 million fish can survive at the current 70 degrees, but if the temperature drops any more, the fish likely will all die.

"We're essentially going to be put out of business if the prison keeps pumping out as much water as they are," he said.

Davis said he has been continually drawing down the size of his lake until it has become a small pool in order to conserve the water's heat. The lake is currently down 30 feet.

"Right now my lake looks like the Kennecott copper pit," he said. "It's just a huge chasm in the ground."