Proposed budget has $42M for Utah water project

The Obama administration's proposed budget for the U.S. Department of the Interior includes money for the long-running construction project to funnel water from the Uinta Basin to the Wasatch Front.

The agency is planning $42 million for the Central Utah Project. That would be in addition to about $41 million in federal stimulus money announced last month for the project.

Authorized in 1956, the project would eventually deliver more than 100,000 acre feet of Colorado River water per year to Utah's most populated area, roughly enough to meet the demands of about 100,000 households.

Reed Murray, the project's Provo-based director, said the work is supposed to be done by 2021.

A 2004 report estimated it would cost about $400 million to complete.