Iron County wants to take billions of gallons of groundwater from Pine Valley, which sits in another county.
Iron County water honchos plan to pump groundwater from Utah's Pine Valley, pictured here, and pipe it 66 miles from Beaver County to growing Cedar City. Beaver County officials are moving to block the project.A simmering water war could be heading toward a boil in Utah’s West Desert, where an Iron County water district is looking to extract billions of gallons of groundwater in a neighboring rural county to sustain urban growth in Cedar City.
, as described in a draft environmental review, has not identified measures that would ensure Pine Valley and adjoining basins aren’t left high and dry.casts doubt on how much water can be safely extracted from under Pine Valley. Its aquifers are fed by an arid region that receives only 6 inches of rain a year and are likely hydrologically connected to basins east into Nevada and as far north as Great Salt Lake, according to Beaver County Commission Chairman Mark Whitney.
“They are stealing our water for their project,” said Tamra Borchardt Slayton, the chairwoman of the Indian Peaks Band, or IPB. “This project is in direct violation of the federal government’s trust obligations to IPB. The state of Utah cannot allow this project to move forward.” “They were wanting to mine our water to pipe it to Iron County when they had [other] sources,” Whitney said. “They could have went to Parowan and bought up farmland. … I don’t like to see the family farms go away, but with growth, you have to sacrifice something, like they’ve done in the Salt Lake Valley. If they want to continue to grow, they need to face those consequences basically do the same. Don’t come to your neighbor and steal their water.
And there’s the rub. How much groundwater is available for “safe” withdrawal under Pine Valley is not exactly known. Beaver County and its allies say new data indicate it may be far less than the amount that has been awarded. Accordingly, they insist the State Engineer reevaluate the volume of water Iron County may take.
“And if we do impair or impact somebody, then there is state law, and there are things that we’re committed to doing to make people whole,” he said.
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