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Show SECTION 1 8 STATE WATER PLAN - JORDAN RIVER BASIN INDUSTRIAL WATER Although the use of water by industry is small, it serves many uses and carries a high value. Water is used to generate power, as a solvent, for temperature control, for cleaning, to transport waste or other materials and for aesthetics. Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. 18.1 Introduction This section discusses the present and future uses of water for industrial purposes in the Jordan River Basin. For this report, industrial water use is defined as water used in mining and manufacturing operations including the production of steel, chemicals, paper or any other product. It includes processing, washing, and cooling operations as well as employee use. Also included, to the extent they can be identified, are such activities as gravel washing and ready- mix concrete. No single agency or entity regulates the development or use of industrial water, although its 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. 18.2 Background One of the major industrial uses of water is for mining operations at the Kennecott Utah Copper Bingham Canyon mine. Because it is part of a patented mining process, the actual amount of water used in Kennecott's mining process is considered confidential information. This is typical of many industrial water uses. When the amount of water used is an intricate part of a patented process, then the water right is treated in a classified manner. Although the State Engineer's Office has a record of the water right, including the quantity of water used, these rights are treated with confidentiality. As a result, it is difficult to develop a detailed inventory of industrial water use. 18.3 Current and Projected Industrial Water Use The State Engineer's Office has surveyed and published statewide industrial water- use data for several years. Although the State Engineer's Office will not divulge the quantity of water used by individual industrial water users, the office has reported the collective 1995 total industrial water use in the Jordan River Basin from privately held water rights as 29,700 acre- feet. The 1995 data on privately held industrial water rights are shown in Table 18- 1. The majority of the privately developed industrial water, ( 26,500 acre- feet) comes from wells, with only 18- 1 |