08-21-2006, 08:49 PM
Taken from:
[url "http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/190547/"]http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/190547/[/url]
The design for the Utah Lake System pipeline project is complete, meaning that 30,000 acre feet of water is closer to coming to south Utah County.
However, it may not be as fast as cities would like. Mark Breitenbach, project manager of the Utah Lake System, said outside factors are determining when the pipeline construction will begin. The Utah Lake System is one of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District's projects seeking to develop central Utah's water resources. The water won't be coming from Utah Lake, though; it will come from Strawberry Reservoir.
"We're waiting still for the start of construction, which we're anticipating to start in 2007 with the construction of U.S. 6," Breitenbach said of the pipeline that will start at Diamond Fork and deliver water from Nephi through Salt Lake County.
A total of 60,000 acre feet of water will go to water users. Half of that is earmarked for Nephi and the 10 cities of the South Utah Valley Municipal Water Association to provide for their needs in 2050. The association includes Elk Ridge, Genola, Goshen, Mapleton, Payson, Salem, Santaquin, Spanish Fork, Springville and Woodland Hills.
Because of the wait for U.S. Highway 6 construction, the project's completion date may be 10 years away. Still, cities are preparing now to hook up, using grants to install compatible systems.
Geoff Dupaix, a Utah Department of Transportation spokesman, said that $500,000 for the design and analysis of improving U.S. 6 was approved in June by the state transportation commission.
Dupaix said that the money will go toward designing a construction plan that will work both for the Utah Lake project and for UDOT's work on U.S. 6.
"If you added up the cost of doing both projects independently and the cost of doing them together, you'd save $20 million," said Christine Finlinson, spokeswoman for the water conservancy district, noting that money from the project comes from a combination of state and federal grants and appropriations. The project will cost several hundred million dollars.
While 30,000 acre feet of water are slated to go south, the remainder will be pumped north. Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, with its 19 members, will receive 21,430 acre feet and the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City and Sandy will be able to use 8,570. Users in the north part of the project will get water first.
One acre foot of water is enough to provide water for four houses. The homes will also have a culinary water supply for inside, so each acre foot of the 30,000 going to south Utah County and Nephi will provide secondary water for more than four homes.
The need for more water stems from rapid growth in south Utah County.
"The need that's driving other cities like Spanish Fork city, is that they have a finite amount of culinary water," Breitenbach said.
According to Breitenbach, the cities are installing compatible systems with $5 million grants through the conservancy district. Spanish Fork's system is ready to go, after a grant. Payson got a grant for having a compatible system that will work with the pipeline. Santaquin got a grant two years ago for its system, and Salem got its grant last year.
"In terms of water for the cities, it's going to provide some water that they otherwise would not have, but it's also going to provide a pressurization," Breitenbach said.
The pressure is what Payson is looking forward to, Payson City Engineer Glade Robbins said. The city will be a user, and while there is enough water now, the city is growing and pressure is already low.
"Our biggest problem is the pressure in the system," Robbins said. "There's so many users that use it at the same time, it's difficult to keep the pressure up."
The only city that has not consulted the Utah Lake project about connecting is Elk Ridge.
Breitenbach said that some smaller cities, such as Woodland Hills, Genola and Goshen, may not benefit by connecting now, but the project is estimated to be able to handle the water needs of residents in 2050, and will supply the water and pressurized system when needed.
The project depends on the need for irrigation to decrease in the next 10 years as well. A temporary supply of 20,000 acre feet is being used for agricultural purposes now, but the project's estimated 2050 needs depends on the farmland land being developed into homes that will use less water.
"That demand will diminish over time as the cities continue to expand," Breitenbach said. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D5.
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