OCR Text |
Show planned for potential use in the pcst- Bonneville period now under study in the Western U. S. Water Plan. ) Utah County The Bureau of Reclamation estimate of additional groundwater available for development is about 15,000 acre- feet annually based on preliminary results of analog model studies.^- 5.0 About 10,000 acre- feet would be available in North Utah Valley with the remaining 5,000 acre- feet available in South Utah Valley. No additional development is anticipated for Goshen Valley because the present rate of development is mining about 7,600 acre- feet annually from the groundwater reservoir. It is anticipated that most of the 15,000 acre- feet of additional groundwater would be utilized in the future by municipalities who presently have unused existing well capacity or have approved applications to develop groundwater. ) Juab Valley No major development is expected to occur in the future without artificial recharge from imported water. Water levels and artesian pressures have been declining continually since 1950 indicating that the rate of discharge is exceeding the rate of recharge to the system.- 31 The State Engineer has imposed a moratorium curtailing future well development. ) Sevier River Area 30 l+ o hi Recent studies by the Soil Conservation Service ' ' indicate that an additional 38,000 acre- feet of groundwater, including 18,000 acre- feet in the Central Sevier Valley and 20,000 acre- feet in the Sevier Desert could be developed from a groundwater salvage and management program. However, these estimates may be optimistic. The local water users rejected the report and refused the proposed groundwater salvage project because their experience indicated that the estimates of water savings were extremely high. Water salvage from phreatophytes by drilling wells is still somewhat questionable. Further testing and study is needed to determine the feasibility of this operation. Unfortunately, this testing cannot be accomplished until Bonneville Unit water is available to satisfy downstream water rights. Pumping groundwater may not accomplish salvage but only deplete river inflows. For these reasons, and others to be discussed later in Section H, it is estimated that a more reasonable estimate of additional groundwater available to wells is about 193 |