2 big water projects advance

Two massive state water projects advanced Wednesday in the Legislature, despite some vehement opposition. The St. George Pipeline won Senate approval, while the Bear River Project was OK'd by the House Natural Resources Committee.

Together, the projects would cost about $1.2 billion, according to Rep. J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton.

The Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act, SB27, now goes to the House for consideration. Its sponsor, Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, defended it during debate Tuesday, saying it authorized the state to build the project but does not appropriate any funds.

Without the project, he said, southern Utah's water demand would exceed availability by 2020. All project costs would be repaid, with interest, by those who use the water, Hatch added.

The bill sailed through the Senate on a 28-0 vote.

Earlier in the day, the House Natural Resources approved HB45, the Bear River Development Act. It authorizes the state to carry out the project. Facilities construction cannot begin until 70 percent of the water is subscribed. But preconstruction activities, including land acquisition and environmental studies, can begin before that point.

Rep. Michael E. Noel, R-Kanab, urged that the projects begin soon. Water prices have risen steeply in southern Utah in the past few years, he said. He spoke in favor of both projects.

Every time a new home is built in the project right of way, or when utilities are located there, he said, "the cost of this project goes up."

"These droughts have put us right on the edge of a disaster," he said.

Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake, said she is struggling with the fact that "we don't even know the full effect of what developing the Bear River will do" in terms of environmental impacts.

Adams responded, "All of the (environmental) studies will be done." When the project is built, he said, "it will be environmentally sound."

If a corridor is not reserved for project facilities, said Tage I. Flint, general manager and CEO of the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, "soon it's going to be closed in" because of residential growth. The land will be expensive and difficult to acquire after that, he said.

The committee did not accept a substitute measure offered by Adams that would have eliminated the 70 percent requirement. But it gave its approval to the measure authorizing the state to build the project.

Erinn Neyrey, defense coordinator for the Utah Rivers Council, said predicted water shortfalls are small and can be handled in other ways than building the Bear River Project. For example, a district with extra water could sell some to an adjacent district, she said.

The project authorization received the committee's endorsement with one dissenting vote, that of Biskupski.

A companion bill, HB47, revising sales tax rules to help the projects' preconstruction costs, also was reported favorably, again with Biskupski's the only vote in opposition.

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