Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CEDAR CITY — The Cedar City Council approved two water rights transactions, a likely total near $16 million.
Last Wednesday, the council voted to approve an agreement with the Holt family of the Escalante Farms Company in Enterprise to buy 1,000 acre-feet of water rights in Basin 71, which covers Enterprise, in Washington County, Beryl, in Iron County, and Milford, in Beaver County, among other areas. Cedar City's basin is located in area 73.
Utah's current transbasin diversion regulations will allow Cedar City to pump Basin 71's water at the depletion rate of approximately 62.3% — a slightly better percentage than available for the city, according to July 12's council packet.
The agreement would cost $12,840,870, with a down payment of $4 million, which was scheduled to be paid last Saturday. The remaining would be purchased via a six-year bond, with interest pushing the cost over $14 million.
