Record Details
page 3
Digital Collections at BYU
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | page 3 Newsletter 1977 September, page 3 |
| Coverage | Electronic reproduction; |
| Format | 3 text/PDF |
| Rights | Brigham Young University; http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/generic.php Public Domain Public |
| Language | English; eng; en |
| Relation | Central Utah Project; Western Waters Digital Library; utah lake not municipal water source due to quality and shortages excess utah lake irrigation water cannot be considered as an alternative source to meet municipal water requirements in salt lake county without the support of bonneville unit water As this irrigation water becomes surplus under the bonneville unit plan it would be combined with other utah lake water and exchanged to the bonneville unit jordanelle Jor danelle reservoir on the provo river from this new reservoir it would then be available as a quality water that could be treated by conventional water treatment facilities and used for municipal purposes the reasons it cannot be utilized independently from the bonneville unit as a municipal water supply are as follows 1 only 5.000 5000 to 10000 acre feet of the irrigation water which may become excess in salt lake county is high quality water that can be treated by a conventional treatment process and used for municipal purposes these are the waters delivered to the county from the provo reservoir canal which diverts its water from the provo river exchange of this high quality water for municipal use by building a pumping station at jordan narrows is already a part of the bonneville plan 2 due to quality of water to meet utah state health standards and the safe drinking water act utah lake cannot be used for municipal purposes with conventional vent ional treatment plants large desalinization plants which are still in the development stage and are extremely expensive would be required these plants also consume large quantities of energy in their operation 3 utah lake irrigation water is not in itself a firm supply of municipal water in dry years the yield would drop to 23.3 233 or less of normal resulting in water shortages under the bonneville unit plan during drought years deliv delav eries of water to salt lake county would be increased to make firm and usable all the local supplies available to salt lake county the most viable plan to provide municipal water to salt lake county would be through the continued construction st of the bonneville unit by the central utah project CUP value noted by utah foundation death of the bonneville unit of the central utah project would mean drastic alteration of utahs long range water planning the utah foundation announced the private nonprofit non profit prof it agency in a research report said rumored presidential action to impound funds for the now congressionally approved project would be based on a misunderstanding of the factors involved if the full bonneville unit is not constructed there appears to be no way for utah to make optimum use of its legal entitlement of water from the colorado river system said the foundation noting that most of the water for the river system falls on the high mountain watersheds of the upper colorado basin states of utah colorado new mexico and wyoming cost benefit ratio A main argument against the bonneville unit the poor cost benefit ratio of the portion that would bring water from uintah basin into the bonneville basin west of the wasatch mountains is a bad one asserted the foundation the water to be brought in from the uintah basin has a far greater potential value than at first appears making the low cost benefit ratio assigned to this part of the project deceptive the foundation said from the beginning central utah project planners have emphasized that this water would initially be used for irrigation but could later be expected to pass to higher priority culinary and industrial uses by the simple law of economics said the foundation cost listed already water for culinary and in industrial du strial uses in central utah costs up to 100 per acre foot while the average price for irrigation is 4 to 7 an acre foot A price which would change the benefit cost ratio of the trans basin diversion unit of the bonneville unit substantially said the foundation utahs long range water plan involves more than just the central utah project the report added such things as increased use of underground water reduction in evaporation losses generally increased efficiency in water use and cloud seeding where feasible are all taken into account the 1977 drought has underscored the importance of water planning the foundation observed areas without storage have suffered severely in the 1977 drought and in some places the emergency was compounded by lack of means of transporting available water to areas where it was critically needed the report said if as it is fervently hoped the coming winter provides normal or above normal precipitation the 1977 experience will stand as a valuable lesson for state water planners the foundation said CUP charges draw several retorts salt lake county attorney paul van dams report charging that ground water resources were deliberately ignored to promote the need for the central utah project is coming under heavy fire water expert ed clyde attorney for both the central utah and salt lake county water conservancy districts has reported 1 I think it would be absolutely stupid to go entirely with ground water if the power went off youd be out of water in the whole salt lake valley continued on page 4 |
| Identifier | http://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/WesternWatersProject/id/1891 |
