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Show ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WATER DEVELOPMENT 95 The Aqueduct Contract The Salt Lake Valley Aqueduct is being constructed for the exclusive benefit and at the ultimate expense of the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City, under a contract between it and the United States. The contract provides: That, subject to the availability of appropriations, the United States will expend the sum of $ 5,550,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary toward the construction of an aqueduct of 150 second feet capacity. All necessary rights of way must be acquired by the District. The District must initiate a proceeding, satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior, which shall result in a judicial confirmation of the Contract. The cost of construction, the District agrees to repay the United States in 40 annual installments, without interest, following the completion of the works and the availability of the water supply to be carried by them. The works when completed will be operated and maintained at the District's expense and for its exclusive benefit. Title, however, will remain in the United States until otherwise provided by Act of Congress. Water supplied by the District for irrigation use outside of its territorial limits must be sold at cost as determined by the Secretary of the Interior. Until the construction cost has been repaid in full, the District's superintendent or engineer in charge of the Aqueduct must be a person satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior. 3. Utah Lake Division PHYSICAL FEATURES, EFFECTS AND COST The Utah Lake Dike project contemplates construction of a dike across Goshen Bay to reduce the present area of the lake from 95,900 acres to 68,500 acres at " compromise" elevation. By reducing the area and increasing the depth of the lake, a reduction of 60,000 acre feet or more will be made in the evaporation losses which, in the past, have amounted to as much as 326,000 acre feet in one year- more than has been available for irrigation at any time since 1931. The Goshen Bay dike will be about 5^ 2 miles long, 20 feet in average height, containing 3,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock fill. Changes proposed for the Jordan River channel, the natural outlet of Utah Lake, will improve the control and spilling facilities for lake storage. The revision will also permit the gravity delivery of water to various canals diverting from the channel during the higher stages of the lake, and will also reduce the cost of pumping lake water into the Jordan River during the lower stages. Progress The cost of this Division has been estimated at $ 2,374,000.00. Nothing has been done toward the actual construction of this division of the Project beyond the organization of the Utah Lake Water Users Association in 1935, but it seems probable that renewed interest will result from the National Defense program and the ever increasing appreciation of the fact that all community progress is dependent upon an ample and dependable water supply. |
