Water News Roundup – April 27, 2010

KCPW: Salt Lake County Council mulls Advisory Commission for Jordan River – he Salt Lake County Council will discuss tomorrow whether to create a multi-jurisdictional advisory commission to oversee development and open space preservation along the Jordan River.

KSL: Construction set for new water education center – Groundbreaking ceremonies are planned for Tuesday at the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District’s new WaterSmart Education Center in West Jordan.  The center will promote water conservation and sustainability. It will include exhibits, a greenhouse, office space and rooms for classes, lectures and special events.

Salt Lake Tribune – Editorial: Drying Up – Nobody would ever call Pat Mulroy diplomatic. The executive director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority can be abrasive and confrontational, and her recent comments about Nevada and Utah water resources were true to form.

Technorati Tags: Jordan River,Jordan River Advisory Commission,JVWCD,Pat Mulroy,Snake Valley,SNWA,water education

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 – April 21, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Analyst: Utah Lake Bridge will lose money – Environmentalists have attacked the proposed Utah Lake Bridge as harmful to Utah Lake’s environment and a potential enabler of urban sprawl on the lake’s west shore.  Now, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups say studies show the bridge will not be cost-effective.

Colorado River water policy faces an age of shortage – Change comes hard to Western water policy. The Prior Appropriation Doctrine, interstate compacts, groundwater law, the “law of the river” — all of these seem set in stone in the minds of the region’s policymakers.

Utah water dubbed world’s best – It’s sweet and has a perfect PH balance — water from southern Utah’s Tushar mountain range.  The spring water was judged the world’s best for bottlers in a prestigious contest.

Opinion: Mulroy’s Addiction – The recent hot-headed ranting and raving about Utah and Salt Lake City by Pat Mulroy, director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, reminds me of a deranged crack addict who can’t support her habit any more and whose whole world is about to collapse.

Technorati Tags: Beaver City,Colorado River,Las Vegas,Law of the River,Pat Mulroy,Utah Lake,Utah Lake bridge

Water News Roundup – April 19, 2010

Salt Lake Tribune:

Reservoir expected to spur Kanab growth – The southern Utah town of Kanab, known for its red sandstone cliffs and mesas is getting a lake.  About 200 residents and dignitaries gathered Friday at a ranch house in the city’s outskirts and broke ground on an earthen dam that will create the Jackson Flat Reservoir.

Anglers prepare for new restrictions – New laws frequently create more questions than they answer. The Recreational Use of Public Water on Private Property law, more commonly known as HB141, is no different.

“There has been a lot of misinformation flying around. Some people think they can no longer fish streams on public land and that is just not true,” said Dean Mitchell, Outreach coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

The Spectrum: Conserving water – The Central Iron County Water Conservancy District is evaluating suggestions for water conservation made in a study by Montgomery, Watson and Harza, a consulting company that has been conducting studies on the Lake Powell Pipeline project.

KSL: Southern Nevada water director: comments weren’t meant personally – The director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority says her comments about Salt Lake City were not meant as an attack against the citizens of Utah.  Earlier this week, Pat Mulroy told television station KCVB in Las Vegas, “They can’t spell conservation in Salt Lake City.”

Deseret News: Bountiful arsenic finding spurs water study – Bountiful city officials are funding a groundwater study after tests of water from a well near a community landfill found increased levels of arsenic.

Technorati Tags: Arsenic,Bountiful City,CICWCD,Jackson Flat Reservoir,Kanab,Lake Powell Pipeline,Pat Mulroy,SNWA,Water Conservation

Water New Roundup – April 15, 2010

KSL:

Nevada water director criticizes Utah – The head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority took shots at Utah in a recent interview, ridiculing Salt Lake City and its high water usage.

(Wow!  Them’s fightin’ words Pat.  I can just see the reverse psychology here.  Pat, “You guys don’t know how to conserve!” Salt-Lakers, “Oh yeah??? Well watch THIS!”)

April storm clobbers northern Utah, raises snowpack – Thanks to a series of powerful storms, the first half of April blanketed much of the Wasatch mountain range with a fifth of its average annual snowfall.

Deseret News: Great weather for golf – (No story here, but the DN saw fit to take note that it is INDEED excellent weather for golfing… woohoo.)

Plus, The Golfing Index.

Technorati Tags: golf,Nevada,Pat Mulroy,Snake Valley,snowpack,spring,storms,Water Conservation,weather