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Show m Ujmsmisn S. L. C. Eng. Dept. 51. The Utah Lake Pumping Plant as it appeared in 190?. Additional pumping facilities have since been installed on the lake. least, denies our priority. The next step may well be an assertion of our inferiority. " Beyond doubt the right of Salt Lake City with respect to the waters of Utah Lake has been the subject of gross neglect during the last 20 years. It may be seriously questioned if it is now too late to accomplish any substantial good other than the definite ascertainment of the extent of our supply from this source. Even that will be well worth while, for it will enable the future to be faced and met with a clear understanding of our problems and obligations." Whether that criticism was justifiable or not, it cannot be repeated as to the ensuing period, for, since it was made, the City's Utah Lake rights have, of necessity, been the subject of the unremitting attention of Mr. Keyser, then and now Commissioner of Water Supply and Waterworks, and of Mr. Beers, then and now City Engineer. They have been compelled, however, to labor in this behalf under the burden of the past, under the burden of precedent and its effect; the heavy obligations of the various exchanges, for example; the establishment and necessities of subsequent appropriates: the practice of inequality, the depletion of the reservoir, and in addition, and sufficiently difficult in itself, the aggravation of the past by the present and long- continued dry cycle. At least one thing else the present water administration has to its credit. A general adjudication suit was commenced in 1933, an action which will result in a re- definition of the City's rights in Utah Lake, and not only in Utah Lake but from its tributaries as well. The importance of this is considerable, because Utah Lake, whether rightly or wrongly, has come to be the basis of the City's water supply so far, and present supplies and uses and facilities must of course be coordinated with those of the future and, equally |
