Drinking water is safe, providers say

A recent Sierra Club report said the drinking water for as much as 90 percent of Utah's population is at risk because of new federal policies, but Wasatch Front water providers and the state's congressional delegation say the assertion is extreme.

Ken Wilde, section manager for the state Division of Drinking Water, said Thursday that recent tests show 99.85 percent of Utah residents receive water from a system that is approved as safe.

Florence Reynolds, Water Quality and Treatment Administrator for Salt Lake City Public Utilities, said city ordinances also offer extra protection to mountain watersheds that provide water to residents. Salt Lake City oversees watersheds in seven Salt Lake area canyons, including Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.

"Certainly there is concern if the regulatory agencies back away from protection of some waterways, but I don't think that puts us at major risk, because we have additional protections built in," Reynolds said.

Lawson LeGate, regional director for the Sierra Club, defended the group's report, which was released Tuesday. The report listed Utah as top in the nation for at-risk water, because much of our drinking water comes from mountain runoff, where some streams and wetlands are "isolated" from larger rivers and aren't wet year-round.

Recent Supreme Court cases and a 2003 memorandum by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Army Corps inspectors can have more leeway in determining whether an isolated water system should be regulated. That's why the Sierra Club is concerned. The group wants Congress to pass a bill, the Clean Water Restoration Act, to clarify and tighten regulations.

"What this report illustrates is the importance of redressing that balance through a passage of legislation that will restore protection to an important water source," LeGate said Thursday.

But most of Utah's congressional delegation said the federal government shouldn't be given more control over the nation's waters.

Scott Parker, spokesman for Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the Sierra Club report "looks more like rhetoric than an actual study."

Regarding the legislation, Parker added, "there does need to be some logical clarification by Congress, but it can't come in the form of a sweeping, blanket authorization for the feds to control and lock down every square inch of water in America." Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement that he believed the Sierra Club's assertions were "ridiculous."

"For decades, many in the federal government have been trying to steal jurisdiction from the states for the regulation of our small rivers and creeks," Hatch said. "Recently the Supreme Court rightly gave the responsibility back to the states. That set back the Sierra Club's agenda, because they don't believe local leaders can do the job their neighbors elected them to do, which is ridiculous."

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said he planned to review the need for the restoration bill this fall.

To see a copy of the Sierra Club report, log on to: www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater.

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com