Utah's tri-county automation project
Date
2004-10
Authors
Hansen, Roger D., author
Hilton, Arlen, author
Humphrey, Jay Mark, author
Berger, Bret, author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
A This paper discusses an ongoing technology project in the tri-county area of central Utah (Carbon, Emery, and Sanpete Counties; see Figure 1). The three counties share the same watershed (Wasatch Plateau) even though Carbon and Emery are in the Green/Colorado River drainage and Sanpete is in the Sevier River drainage. The county boundaries roughly equate to river basin boundaries: Emery-San Rafael River; Carbon-Price River; and Sanpete-San Pitch River. There are 13 small trans-basin diversions that export water from Emery and Carbon Counties to Sanpete County. There is a Federal water project in each county and Colorado River salinity projects in Emery and Carbon. And there is a myriad of contentious issues developing including: protecting and quantifying water rights, a leaky reservoir basin which has become an unintentional trans- basin diversion, a proposed new trans-basin diversion which is in the final planning stages, quantifying the impacts of the Federal salinity projects, conjunctive use of Federal and non-Federal facilities, and addressing fish and wildlife issues. Part of the solution to avoiding future conflicts in the tri-county area involves increased real-time monitoring and control, and using this information to operate both Federal and non-Federal facilities in an optimal fashion to the benefit of all. The existing (but still evolving) Emery County real-time monitoring system and real-time web site (www.ewcd.org) are demonstrating what is possible (Emery WCD and Reclamation, 2003). Officials in all three counties are indicating strong support for a multi-county system which would cover the entire area. Emery is so committed to the concept that, several years ago, the county raised its ad valorem tax to provide base-level funding for their portion of the project (Hansen and Berger, 2003).
Description
Presented during the USCID water management conference held on October 13-16, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme of the conference was "Water rights and related water supply issues."