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Show 3.4.3 Water Districts The Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City was formed in 1935 by the Utah State Legislature as a " separate and independent" public agency. It is the primary wholesaler of water to Salt Lake City, which has a statutory preferential right to purchase all of the district's water for use within the city. The district participated in the Provo River Project and holds shares of stock in the Provo River Water Users Association which entitles it to receive 61,700 acre- feet of water annually from Deer Creek Reservoir. In 1990, Sandy City formally applied for annexation into the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City. The MWDSLC's board of directors approved this request and increased the board membership from five to seven, adding two members to represent Sandy City. The Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District was organized in 1951 to supply water to the developing areas of the county. Water was first delivered in 1954. The district has grown over the years and now supplies water to 20 wholesale customers and over 7,500 retail connections which include all cities and fire improvement districts. Water sources include direct flow rights in the Provo and Weber rivers, local Wasatch mountain streams, groundwater and storage in Deer Creek, Jordanelle and Echo Reservoirs. 3.4.4 Jordan River History Before settlement of the Salt Lake Valley, the Jordan River meandered from its entry into Salt Lake Valley at the Jordan Narrows across a broad floodplain to the Great Salt Lake. A forest of cottonwood trees traced its path along the valley floor. Numerous oxbows, marsh areas and riparian zones provided home to a diverse community of wildlife. The Jordan River reportedly was an excellent fishery in the early years following the first settlement of the valley. Since that time, the forest has been cut, the river channeled, the water polluted, the oxbows and wetlands filled, and much of the wildlife displaced. A considerable amount of pollution resulted from mining operations in the Wasatch Front canyons and the Oquirrh mountains. These mining activities have affected water Jordan River quality since before the turn of the century. But mining was at a peak from the early to middle part of this century. While some short sections of the Jordan River may have been straightened or channelized at an earlier date, the bulk of the Jordan River channelizing occurred during the 1950s and 1960s under the concept that a channelized river was the best method for handling flood flows. • |