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John Hollenhorst reportingWe've all heard plenty of preaching about conserving water in recent years, but a luxury resort project in Southern Utah is raising eyebrows. For more than two years, developers have been pouring a half-million gallons of water a day onto sagebrush. They say it's beneficial, but critics say it's an enormous waste.
Even during winter, the pumping goes on. In January, a huge sheet of ice several feet thick was visible. It's alongside Highway 89, with Lake Powell visible in the distance. Since late 2005, sprinklers have been pouring 570 acre-feet of water, 185 million gallons, per year onto a sagebrush desert.
Craig Smith, a water attorney for the developer, Canyon Group, said, "I don't think it's wasting water. I think some people driving by would maybe disagree with me on that because they don't understand what we're trying to accomplish."
The plan is for an ultra-luxury resort with accommodations as high as $1,600 a night and villas selling for several million apiece. The Amangiri Resort won't open until at least the end of this year. But developers are already using a substantial portion of the water rights they applied for.
We spoke by phone with Canyon Group's CEO, Homi Vazifdar, in San Francisco. He said, "You can't develop it without water. And so we had to make sure there was going to be water to sustain our development in the long-term."
They're undergoing a legal process called "proving up" the water right, drilling and pumping to prove the water is there. Smith says, "We're just trying to work with the laws the way they are and make sure we do all the things we need to do to make sure we have sufficient water for our resort."
Ted Wilson, of the Utah Rivers Council, says there ought to be better ways to prove up a water right than dumping water in the desert. "Maybe they're forced to do it by law. And if that's the case, then the law ought to be changed."
Actually, the law would allow the developers to stop pumping temporarily under a non-use exemption. But Smith says the state doesn't have to grant it, and the procedure could put water rights at risk. He claims the watering has a beneficial use, for dust control and range restoration. They put down seed annually, and he says that area may become a golf course someday. But he acknowledges the pumping is partly to reassure investors.
"Also demonstrate that we have a reliable source, because, obviously you don't want to build a multi-million dollar resort and then find out your well is going to run dry in a year," Smith said.
Wilson said, "To do it for three years seems to me to be just an enormous waste of water in a state that's the second most dry state in the nation."
The law tends to push landowners toward water use, because they're afraid to run afoul of the use-it-or-lose-it law. The theory is that no one should hoard water for future use. Experts tell us that sometimes leads to waste, but no one expects major reform any time soon.
The Legislature did make some minor changes to the use-it-or-lose it law today. They involve conditions under which cities and towns can hold on to water rights without using them. The bill went to the governor today for his signature.
