Water News Roundup – May 17, 2010

Happy Monday!  Loads of water news today.  When it rains it pours?

Provo Daily Herald:  Task force formed to discuss water access on private lands – There have been few issues in the past five years hotter than recreational access to water flowing over private property.

Provo Daily Herald – Opinion:  Facts support need for Utah Lake bridge – In the last few weeks there have been two news articles that state the bridge across Utah Lake is "a bad idea" and it is "not viable." People can have thoughts and beliefs, but not their own facts.

Salt Lake Tribune:

A new approach to the Great Salt Lake – Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp.’s expansion plan is moving forward so America’s farmers can continue to feed our country and help meet growing worldwide food needs.

Wyoming worried about Green River water grab – Wyoming has an unusual problem among the states in the Colorado River system: lots of water and, other than supporting some fine trout fishing, no way to put a significant amount of it to use.

Deseret News:  Comments sought on Gooseberry Narrows dam project – Envisioned 77 years ago as a way to supply water to northern Sanpete County residents, the proposed Gooseberry Narrows reservoir remains on the drawing board and a subject of bitter contention between two counties.

St. George Spectrum: Event highlights water education – A wet winter has water supplies looking good in Southern Utah, but water managers are reminding residents to do what they can to help those supplies last.

KCPW: Salt Lake County adopts stricter drinking water protections – Salt Lake County adopted a water source protection ordinance this week to beef up protections already in place and to comply with a new state law.

Water News Roundup – April 26, 2010

Daily Herald:

Pipeline to bring 400 jobs, $235 million to local economy – As a massive project to pipe the Murdock Canal gets underway, officials are lauding the work as a boon to the local economy.

CUP pipeline construction will start this fall – Engineers for a 5-foot water pipeline project are looking for input from the public on where the pipeline should go.

Santaquin gets $7 million for water treatment plant – Representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development stopped by to present Santaquin with a $7 million loan/grant for its forthcoming wastewater treatment plant.

Deseret News:  Bishop and Chaffetz join water fight in congress – A frontier proverb said that whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting over. Holding true to that, a big water fight broke out in Congress on Wednesday.

Salt Lake Tribune:

Official: Water deal is critical – A top Nevada water chief made a splash during a recent Las Vegas television interview, trash-talking Salt Lake City for being too bucolic, its residents for not being able to spell conservation and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert for not signing a contentious Snake Valley water-sharing agreement.

Back on the Green – Emmett Heath caught his first trout on the Green River below Flaming Gorge Reservoir before the dam was even completed.

Will we be ready when drought comes to stay? – In 1934, the driest year of the Dust Bowl, Big Cottonwood creek, which supplies almost 25 percent of Salt Lake Valley water, ran dry. In 1935, the year of Black Sunday, Utah Lake was empty.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Bridging Utah Lake – Leon Harward wants to build a 5.8 mile-long private toll bridge across Utah Lake. Because this project would alter the air and water quality in Utah County in multiple ways, the importance of an environmental assessment cannot be overstated. Yet this project will not be subject to a federal environmental impact statement.

Technorati Tags: Clean Water Act,Colorado River,CUP pipeline,drought,Green River,Murdock Canal,Pat Mulroy,provo reservoir enclosure project,Santaquin,Snake Valley,Utah Lake,Utah Lake bridge,water legislation,water treatment plant

Water News Roundup – February 4, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune: Green River power plan generates big questions – A fledgling company’s plan to build a 3,000 megawatt nuclear power plant near the Green River in eastern Utah is generating more questions than answers.

Deseret News: Utah groups challenge uranium mill’s plan to divert groundwater – Two Utah-based conservation groups have filed a challenge in Colorado Water Court to three applications for groundwater that flows into the Dolores River.

Utah Water News wants to let you know that February 12th is RIDE UTA FREE day in support of Governor Herbert and Mayor Becker’s ‘Clean Air Challenge‘!  If you happen to be out and about that day, take advantage of a free bus, Trax or Frontrunner ride.

Water News Roundup – January 26, 2010

The Spectrum: Water standards lax?  If you Google Cedar City safe drinking water, a link on the first page takes you to test results collected by an environmental group that are posted both on the group’s Web site, www.ewg.org, and the New York Times Web site.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Utah’s pipeline problem – I have been fighting the proposed pipeline from Utah’s Snake Valley to Las Vegas for five years. This misguided project is one of three that seek to take water from Utah and move it out of state. It is astounding that Utah’s governor and the state Department of Natural Resources appear willing at some point to let the Snake Valley plan happen.

Big Gulp – A guy named Million wants to spend billions to pipe part of Wyoming’s Green River 400 miles to Denver and beyond. But as global warming threatens the flows in the Green, it would be foolhardy to suck great gulps of water from the stream. To sustain both wildlife and humans, the waters should be left alone.

Water News Roundup – January 25, 2010

KSL: Water pipeline idea interests irrigation districts – Representatives of some of the Colorado municipalities and irrigation districts interested in drawing water from a proposed pipeline from Wyoming say they need more water regardless of the source.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Sinking Snake Valley – The opinion column by John D. Bredehoeft, formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey, details in most cogent terms why any Snake Valley water deal with Nevada should not be signed — no matter what safeguards might be included.

Deseret News: Utah Legislature 2010: Water issues inundate Capitol Hill – This year’s legislative session will play host to a flood of environmental bills — many dealing with the management of water — with lawmakers tasked with determining if it is appropriate to “harvest” rain or “bank” local district water rights if they aren’t being used.

Latest Snowpack Map…

Also, for all of you fellow desk jockeys….

Here’s a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly. Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods — even if you also exercise regularly — could be bad for your health.

Water News Roundup – January 21, 2010

KSL: Developer of Wyoming – Colorado water line claims demand – The developer of a proposed water pipeline from southwestern Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range says customer demand for water exceeds the pipeline’s capacity.

Water News Roundup – January 20, 2010

KSL: Optimistic ruling won’t hurt water deal – Colorado’s top water official is optimistic that a setback to a California water conservation plan won’t derail an agreement affecting the use of Colorado River by six other states in the West.

Salt Lake Tribune:

States walk fine line with law of the river – Question: Could Wyoming or Utah block a Colorado entrepreneur’s plan to pipe Green River water to Denver?

Colorado proposal stirs water fears –  A big gulp of the little stream that splits these sagebrush prairies might take a $3 billion detour across the Great Divide and into Colorado’s bullish future.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Guv and Snake Valley – The National Parks Conservation Association commends Gov. Gary Herbert for stepping back and taking a thoughtful approach to the proposed Snake Valley water-sharing agreement with Nevada.

Ogden Standard Examiner: Water totals should be up by the end of the week – Top of Utah snow totals as of Tuesday morning were no better than a week before, which sounds odd considering how much it snowed and rained Monday.

Water News Roundup – January 19, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Snake Valley pumping hard to monitor – The Southern Nevada Water Authority proposes pumping groundwater from five desert basins in the Great Basin, including Snake Valley on the Nevada-Utah border, and piping the water south to Las Vegas. Under the proposed water-sharing agreement for Snake Valley, a monitoring plan is offered as a mechanism to control excessive adverse impacts.

10 reasons not to give Utah water to Nevada – Utah’s tourism slogan is “Life Elevated.” Perfect irony, because what is most elevated in Utah is our air pollution — the worst in the country this week and hardly a boon to tourism.

N. Utah water outlook is dim but could brighten – As of this week, the water outlook in chilly northern Utah doesn’t look so hot.  On the other hand, southern Utah’s snowpack is above average and likely to stay that way until spring.

Storms could change the snowpack picture – Monday’s crowd at Solitude Mountain Resort lent credibility to ski area advertisements touting lift lines so short resort officials don’t even know how to spell “kroud.”

KCPW: State gathering public input on nuke plant water deal –  The Utah Division of Water Rights held a public meeting last night to gather input on a proposal that would allow the states first nuclear power plant to be built. Those opposed to the project say it will harm the Green River.  But Aaron Tilton, CEO of Blue Castle Holdings, which owns the project, says theyre misguided.

MSNBC:  EPA offers Florida water pollution limits – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed the first numeric limits in the nation for farm and urban runoff polluting Florida’s waterways, limits supporters say could set precedent and lead to similar federal standards in other states.

Water News Roundup – January 13, 2010

KSL: Hearings open on nuke power plant – Some in Green River would welcome a nuclear power plant for the jobs it could create.

Salt Lake Tribune: Hearing on proposed Utah nuke plant zeroes in on water needs – A proposed nuclear power plant that could be built just outside this Emery County town in southern Utah would provide more than 1,000 long-term, high-paying jobs.

Deseret News: Water hearing today for proposed Emery County plant – Protests sparked by a plan to divert river water for a new nuclear reactor in Emery County will be reviewed at a hearing Tuesday.

Drought Monitor: