Environmental Impact Statement for Bonneville Unit, Central Utah Project

Page 10

-9- lity than most Wasatch Front streams. These should be dealt with properly and honestly and could provide a great deal of ad­ditional supply. Also, the statement that development of Wasatch Front streams would decrease ground water recharge is not true, since almost all recharge occurs above the intake points for the treatment plants and additional recharge can be constructed. *K Desalination-This is given brief and misleading treatment. The statement indicates 1 million af consumption for desalina­tion without any documentation. The discussion of reducing the level of Great Salt Lake ignores the problems discussed in I-A above and the low consumption by M&I users. This alternative should be developed using realistic analyses and prices. 5.cPhreatophyte Control-This alternative is dismissed without making any definite statements about feasibility, costs, total amount that could be salvaged, etc. The real potential along the Jordan River, which will occur with the authorized Jordan River Parkway, is simply ignored. 6. Recycling and Re-use-The potential is recognized, but not in any detail..There is little serious discussion of two-stage muni­cipal- Industrial systems, and the potential for recycling is dis­missed on the basis of out-moded public attitudes. As pointed out in II-A above, there will be a great deal of culinary quality water available in the near future, and it could be -used in a variety of ways. Public attitudes can be changed, especially if prices are increased to a realistic level and public money is used to educate the public rather than conducting a public re­lations campaign to sell the people the CUP which they don't need. 7- Better Management and Efficiency of Utilization-These deve­lopments are alluded to and promptly forgotten.vThe statement men­tions 50$ loss in some communities due to leaking and defective systems. The same problem exists at the household and individual farmer level. If pricing reflected true cost and availability, then waste would rapidly iisappear and demand would drop. 8. Bear River and Weber River-Somehow the fact that excess water is available in these two systems disappears like under­ground water. The Weber Basin project has 56,000 af unsubscribed even though the taxpayers built it. We should use it first.,The