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Show use must conform to existing state laws for water rights, pollution control and other regulations. The single biggest obstacle in identifying the county's total industrial water uses is that many industrial water users view their water- use data as classified information. Industrial water use data for 1995 from the State Engineer's Office reports put the total industrial water use in the Jordan River Basin from privately held water rights at 29,700 acre- feet. The majority of the privately developed industrial water ( 26,500 acre- feet) comes from wells, with only 3,000 acre- feet coming from surface water, and 200 acre- feet from springs. In addition, an estimated 15,400 acre- feet of the public water supply is used for industrial purposes. Kennecott Utah Copper imports 10,000 acre- feet from Tooele county for industrial uses. That puts the basin's current industrial water use at 55,100 acre- feet. If industrial water use does grow at the same rate as the population over the next 25 years, demand will increase from 51,400 acre- feet to over 82,000 acre- feet in 2020. 2.19 Groundwater This section describes groundwater conditions in the Jordan River Basin. Currently, groundwater provides approximately 168,500 acre- feet annually or 26 percent of the presently developed water supply for municipal, industrial, irrigation, domestic and stock- watering purposes. Groundwater in the valley's principal aquifer is generally of excellent quality on the east side of the valley, with the quality becoming poorer on the west side and towards the Great Salt Lake. The water quality of the shallow unconfined aquifer is generally poor. There is an upward gradient from the principal aquifer to the shallow aquifer over a large percentage of the valley. This helps maintain the high quality of the principal aquifer. Evidence indicates, however, that excessive pumping from the principal aquifer can reverse the upward gradient, allowing downward leakage of the poor quality water. The Salt Lake Valley Interim Groundwater Management Plan was created to provide the necessary management guidelines until the USGS groundwater study is completed and incorporated into the groundwater regulations. One of the biggest concerns at the present time is the total volume of groundwater withdrawals. It is in the best interest of all water users that the groundwater not be mined. Groundwater mining can potentially result in the contamination of the principal aquifer by inducing inflow of poorer quality water. Present groundwater withdrawals of 168,500 acre- feet are believed to be very close to the average annual yield of the principal aquifer. If unperfected water rights claims are developed, the total groundwater withdrawals would exceed 387,500 acre- feet, considerably higher than the estimated average annual recharge of the principal aquifer. Part of the U. S. Geological Survey groundwater study will provide more complete data and information about the affects of withdrawals on the water quality of the aquifer. The study will be used to establish the groundwater management plan for years to come. Groundwater contamination can be a very serious problem with potentially long- term consequences. Throughout Salt Lake Valley, many differing types of toxic materials are stored directly on the ground or underground in containment structures. Unreported spills can go undetected for a considerable time while the contamination spreads throughout the aquifer resulting in a time consuming and expensive cleanup. Two such spills which have been addressed in recent years are the contamination by leachate from uranium- mill tailings, and contamination of the Bingham Canyon and Bingham Creek area by seepage from reservoirs and evaporation ponds associated with mining activities. • 2- 9 |
