Panel OKs $51M for Utah

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, on which Sen. Bob Bennett is the ranking Republican, endorsed an appropriations bill Wednesday providing $51.5 million for Utah energy and water projects through earmarks that Bennett requested.

The money ranges from providing more funding to remove uranium mill tailings near Moab to helping Utah communities improve their water systems. It is included in the annual energy and water appropriations bill.

It includes $10 million for the continuing cleanup of the Moab Atlas uranium mill tailings; $20 million to help rural communities improve water and sewer systems; and $10 million to Utah State University for research on energy efficiency, alternative energy, carbon sequestration and carbon-free energy.

Also, it has $2 million to help Ceramatec develop technology to more effectively extract oil from oil shale; $3 million for a pilot plant in Utah to transform coal and forest residues into diesel and carbon dioxide-free electricity; and $1 million for a study about enlarging the Great Salt Lake dam that creates the enlarged Willard Bay.

Also included is $1 million to help convert waste in the Bayview landfill into electricity; $1 million for a demonstration project to use smart-grid technology for electricity transmission in Utah; and $500,000 to help rural areas install automatic monitors to control water levels in canals.

Some other funding includes $600,000 for the USU Intermountain Center for River Dynamics and Restoration; and $1 million to Southern Utah University and $900,000 to Westminster College to help them equip new science centers with energy-efficient technology.

Beyond the Bennett earmarks, the bill also includes $42 million for the Central Utah Project, which brings water from eastern Utah through a series of dams and aqueducts to the Wasatch Front.

The bill now goes to the full Senate Appropriations Committee.

E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com