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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- The design for the Utah Lake System pipeline project is complete, and construction should begin next year, but it could be 10 years before south Utah County residents see their share of the water flowing from Strawberry Reservoir.
The Utah Lake System is one of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District's projects seeking to develop central Utah's water resources.
Mark Breitenbach, project manager of the Utah Lake System, said, "We're waiting still for the start of construction, which we're anticipating to start in 2007 with the construction of U.S. 6."
The pipeline will start at Diamond Fork. 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, which includes Elk Ridge, Genola, Goshen, Mapleton, Payson, Salem, Santaquin, Spanish Fork, Springville and Woodland Hills.
The remainder of the water will be pumped north. The 19-member Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District 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.
Because of the wait for U.S. 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.
Breitenbach said the south Utah County cities are installing compatible systems with $5 million grants through the conservancy district. Spanish Fork's system is ready to go. 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.
There is enough water now, but the city is growing and pressure already is low.
"There's so many users that use it at the same time, it's difficult to keep the pressure up," Robbins said.
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.
Information from: The Daily Herald,
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
