OCR Text |
Show BEAR RIVER DISTRICT The Board of Water Resources, working in conjunction with irrigation and rural domestic water companies, has completed nearly $ 3 million worth of water conservation projects in the Bear River District - Box Elder, Cache and Rich Counties - in the 30 years since creation of the Revolving Fund. While most of the construction was on irrigation projects, the work also involved seven culinary developments designed to improve both the quality and quantity of water consumed by hundreds of rural residents of the three- county District in extreme northern Utah. Irrigation projects develop in excess of 80,000 acre- feet of water a year, providing supplemental water for 121,262 acres of land and permitting cultivation with a firm water supply for the first time of 4,493 acres. An important by- product of these water conservation projects ( 42 contracts in all) are reservoirs which provide some excellent fishing as well as limited boating opportunities. Additionally, fishing conditions have improved in some of the rivers below the dams constructed by the Division of Water Resources. Sponsoring irrigation and water companies at the outset paid about a third of the cost of the projects in the Bear River District and the Board of Water Resources contributed the remainder. That two- thirds of the cost of the projects in the District paid by the Board of Water Resources is being returned to the Revolving Fund as sponsors purchase the works from the State. Thus money whic financed earlier conservation developments now is back at work providing the funds needed to purchase necessary materials and labor required to conserve still more of Utah's scarce water supply. |