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SALT LAKE CITY — An updated study on how to get 220,000 acre-feet of water to the Wasatch Front in 2050 explores 13 potential ways to do that and what the cost would be.
The feasibility study released Tuesday by the Utah Division of Water Resources looks at 13 potential reservoir and pipeline alignments for the Bear River Development Project, estimating it would cost anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2.8 billion.
Initially, the project approved by the Utah Legislature in 1991 anticipated Box Elder, Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties would need the water by 2015, but it has been delayed.
“Thanks primarily to conservation efforts, new technology and some smaller water development projects, current projections indicate the need for this project has been pushed out between 2045 to 2050,” said Eric Millis, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources.
Although the project would divert 220,000 acre-feet of water on an annual basis from the Bear River, the division said much of that water would be put back in the system through “return flows.” The actual depletion from the watershed is estimated to be 85,600 acre-feet. An acre-foot of water is 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre at a depth of one foot.
The Bear River Development Project, intended to meet the needs of a state population expected to nearly double by 2050, is not without its controversy.
The division points to modeling that shows the diversion would reduce Great Salt Lake levels by an average of 8.5 inches or as much as 14 inches. Those reductions were projected in an analysis by Utah State University, Salt Lake Community College and the Utah Division of Water Resources.
Recent measurements show the Great Salt Lake is already struggling. During the past 50 years, the lake logged its lowest recorded levels. Those two measurements came within the past three years — in 2016 and again in 2018.
The project is in a planning stage and will have to go through an extensive federal environmental analysis before it is approved. Next steps include additional studies that will look at climate variability and the Great Salt Lake.
Multiple groups, including the Utah Rivers Council and Friends of the Great Salt Lake, are critical of the project because of its impacts on the watershed.
The study can be viewed on the division’s website.
