Record Details
page 8
Digital Collections at BYU
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | page 8 Diamond Fork System Final Supplement to the Final Environmental Impact Statement, page 8 |
| Coverage | Electronic reproduction; |
| Format | 8 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; comment letter no 12 page 8 of 13 SFN comments page eight it would be sound public policy for the governors office and the district to harmonize their message and give the citizens of these counties a realistic assessment of how their communities will change in the future undoubtedly that message will include a dose of residential and industrial growth and that should be accounted for in the final EIS analysis utah lake issues section 202 aa a4 of CUPCA authorizes 1000000 1000000 lOO OOOO 0000 for the district to conduct with public involvement a feasibility study to reduce the salinity of utah lake for reasons which are not clear this study was initiated by the district but later abandoned a decision apparently made without public input nonetheless this authorization clearly reveals that congress perceived the salinity in utah lake as a problem and expected the district to examine ways to alleviate this problem in view of this it appears that one troubling aspect of the proposed action is that it actually exacerbates salinity problems in utah lake as the DEIS verifies in the broadest perspective this puts the proposed action at odds with the concerns of congress more specifically there are economic and environmental ramifications to increased salinity in the lake which weigh heavily against the advisability of expanding marginal farming operations in project area the prime contributor to expected salinity increases A portion of these problems are identified and evaluated in the DEIS for instance the DEIS notes that salt lake is evaluating the feasibility of treating 50000 acre feet of utah lake water to be used for M & I 1 purposes the increased salinity in this water a direct result of the proposed action will increase the annual cost of salt lake countys countes Coun tys salination desalination de efforts by a projected 450000 to 500000 in contrast the DEIS does not thoroughly evaluate the possible effects and increased costs this salinity will impose on dual water systems in the salt lake valley and elsewhere it is anticipated that many communities in the area will follow the lead of draper and attempt to mix utah lake water with other supplies in such secondary systems it might be advisable for the district to finish the salinity study referred to above which would yield information and data that would improve the analysis in the DEIS beyond that however the DEIS should do a more thorough job of projecting the impacts of increased salinity in the lake and costs which communities and farms may bear in dealing with such increases As the DEIS states the net annual increase in farm income in the project area resulting from the proposed action is predicted to be 1.4 14 million it is quite possible that the costs to cert certain ain aln communities of dealing with projected salinity increases will eventually negate the increased farm income expected in other areas these issues should be evaluated in the document project cost and costallocations cost allocations information on the costs of the proposed action and how these costs are allocated is available in technical documents such as the draft financial and economic appendix since these documents are difficult for the public to access and understand it would be appropriate for some of this information to be provided in the DEIS A partial list of items in such an analysis might include 1 a breakdown of project costs between major segments of the project 2 funds already expended on facilities such as in diamond fork and remaining budgetary ceiling 3 allocation of costs to reimbursable and nonreimbursable reimbursable non categories 4 total costs to be bom by the federal government and those to be paid by local entities 5 costs which will be paid by the strawberry water users association |
| Identifier | http://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/WesternWatersProject/id/9294 |
