By Lisa Rutherford
Washington County in southern Utah faces continued political pressure from local, state, and federal officials intent on undermining our area with bad water and transportation decisions.
Two proposed projects—the Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP) and the Northern Corridor Highway (NCH) —are in the public comment phase of their Draft Environmental Impact Statements (DEISs). The 90-day comment periods began on June 8 (LPP) and June 12 (NCH) and we need you!
These two projects are just planned for Washington County but they affect all Utahns.
The Lake Powell Pipeline is a state project conceived in the 1990s and legislated in 2006 through the Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act. Since that time, Conserve Southwest Utah (CSU), on whose board I serve, has tracked this project and worked to stop it. For twelve years the state tried to get licensing through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). They finally realized FERC was not the easy path they had envisioned since FERC was asking the state too many pesky questions—questions raised to FERC by CSU, Sierra Club, Utah Rivers Council, and others. Now they’ve moved to the Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) perhaps hoping that BoR’s Provo office will be “friendlier.”
The 140-mile LPP is engineered to bring 86,249-acre feet-per-year of water to our county, a county that uses over 300 gallons per capita per day—much more than the U.S. average of 179! Why should all Utahns care? Because the state would bond for this multi-billion dollar project, tying up money that should be used for real needs in Utah: education, transportation, health care, etc. The governor’s Executive Water Finance board acknowledges that this would amount to a $1B subsidy to Washington County and given the Act’s wording the state (Utah’s citizens!) might never be paid back. Conservation is what’s needed, not more waste.
Additionally, and perhaps even more pertinent to Utah’s Sierrans, we don’t need Utah’s citizens burdened by a project that would cross public land, permanently scarring land that cannot be adequately restored and marring views with unsightly facilities along Highway 89.
The Northern Corridor highway is another ill-conceived project in Southern Utah that challenges what all Sierrans hold dear: protected public land. The NCH would cross the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (RCNCA). RCNCA was created in 2009, making a majority of the existing 62,000 acre Red Cliffs Desert Reserve an NCA. To put that in perspective, consider that there are only fifteen NCAs in this nation. Utah has three NCAs and two are in Washington County: RCNCA and Beaver Dam Wash NCA.
How incredible that we Utahns are blessed with three out of fifteen NCAs! All the more reason to protect what we have.
The original Reserve was established in 1995 to protect threatened and endangered species particularly the Mojave desert tortoise. RCNCA added additional protection but is now being undermined by this highway project when alternatives should be considered. People come from across Utah to recreate and refresh themselves in RCNCA. Quality of life for all of us is threatened by this highway.
How can you help? Following CSU’s review of the two DEISs, we will provide key points for citizen comments. It could make a huge difference to have all Utah Sierrans take time to submit comments to the BoR on the LPP and BLM/USFWS on the NCH. Please go to https://conserveswu.org/ to learn how you can help.
This is a crucial time in Southern Utah. Our future is in our hands and we must join together and protect what all Sierrans love.