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Show ° Develop Utah Lake/ Jordan River water, ° Develop additional water from the Wasatch Range mountain streams, ° Develop additional groundwater, ° Bear River water development, ° Conservation The potential for converting agricultural water to culinary water will be limited due to water quality concerns with Utah Lake and Jordan River water and the high cost of treatment to M& I standards. Development of additional water from the Wasatch Range streams holds a limited potential for addressing the future needs. Plans are already in place to enlarge some of the water treatment facilities and put more of this high quality water to culinary use. Further development of these streams, however, is a very sensitive environmental issue. Plans have been made to develop additional groundwater sources in the Salt Lake Valley, but this will be done on a very limited basis and monitored closely by the Division of Water Rights. At the present time, the State Engineer as well as many other groundwater experts believe the current level of groundwater withdrawals are approaching the safe yield levels for the valley. The Bear River has long been viewed as an available water resource. A joint legislative/ gubernatorial Bear River task force was created in 1990 to look at water development options on the Bear River. The Bear River Task Force introduced legislation that defined the state's role in the development of the river. The 1991 Bear River Development Act states the Division of Water Resources shall construct a state project that may include the construction of reservoirs on the Bear River and a pipeline or canal to Willard Bay. Currently the Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District ( SLCWCD) is purchasing land in central Weber County for a proposed water treatment plant. Also, in cooperation with the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District ( WBWCD), the SLCWCD is investigating pipeline alignment alternatives to convey Bear River and/ or Weber River water from the proposed plant south to Salt Lake County, This pipeline will deliver needed water to SLCWCD as well as alleviate an infrastructure problem for WBWCD in Davis County. Potential exists to stretch existing water supplies through a number of conservation practices. Water users may be able to better manage their supplies thereby increasing efficiencies which in turn can reduce costs. This applies to all water uses including residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural. Water reuse is also a potential water conservation practice that might be employed in the near future. 2.10 Agriculture As the Jordan River Basin population has grown, many of the agricultural areas have been converted to residential or commercial developments, significantly reducing the total irrigated acreage during the past 30 years. Historically, agriculture has been an important industry in the Jordan River Basin. Today, however, there are just over 43,800 acres of cultivated lands, of which approximately 25,300 acres are irrigated. Urbanization in the Jordan River Basin makes agriculture's role increasingly less significant in the socio- economic development of the Jordan River Basin. Still, agricultural water quantity and quality play an important role in overall water planning. Virtually all of the surface water supplies used for agriculture come from the Jordan River. The cost of treating Jordan River/ Utah Lake water to drinking water standards is currently prohibitive. Consequently, the quantity and quality of water available for agriculture is not a problem. With large tracts of formerly irrigated lands now converted to residential developments, more than enough water is available for the lands remaining in agricultural production. 2.11 Drinking Water This section describes the present drinking water systems in the Jordan River Basin, discusses present and future problems, and presents estimated future requirements. At the present time, existing drinking water supplies are adequate and come from a rather complex mix of surface water and groundwater ( including wells, springs and tunnels). Almost 99 percent of the public drinking water supplies comes from 32 approved community drinking water systems The major water purveyors in the county are Salt Lake City, the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City ( MWD) and the Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District ( SLCWCD). Most of the other approved water systems, despite having autonomous water sources, are dependent to some extent upon the purchase of water from one or more of these wholesalers. When planned development of current 2- 4 |
