White Elephant’s Trunk
8 Comments Published August 22nd, 2007 in National and International Issues, Southern Utah People, Southern Utah Places, Southern Utah Talking Points and Questions.Colorful and eye catching, the slick brochure was there in the back of my mailbox. The picture on the front featured the red’s and gold’s of Color Country. But a closer look showed that it was actually Lake Powell on the cover. It was a professional job! The white “bathtub ring” that is one of the most distinctive features you see when you drive by Lake Powell today was hardly visible.
It turns out that the brochure had been sent out by the “Lake Powell Pipeline Management Committee”. It’s not clear whether the ink, paper, and postage for this brochure were paid out of tax dollars directly or not, but all you have to do is look at the people on the “Management Committee” and you can tell that it’s “your tax dollars at work”. Just check out where the people on the “Management Committee” work:
Utah State Division of Water Resources
Lower Colorado Board of Water Resources
Washington County Water Conservancy District
These are all government bureaucrats!
The reason I think that’s important is that the brochure is clearly a one sided argument saying (direct quote from the brochure), “The Lake Powell Pipeline is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The problem is that there actually are two sides to the story. To get the other side, I talked to property owning taxpayer Steve Masefield in Springdale, Utah. (I happened to hear him mention that he was on the other side of the debate earlier.) Steve made the point that there really isn’t any water in Lake Powell to share. He said rainfall is declining in the west and Lake Powell is already stressed. Steve wondered whether there would be any water to put into the pipeline.
He makes a good point.
In 2005, water level in Lake Powell dropped to 32 percent of capacity. The next winter was “wet” and just saved it from being “functionally empty”. (It also resulted in record floods in the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers and washed away a few homes. But what the hey! You can’t make omelets without breaking a few eggs.)
The “Management Committee” makes the point that Utah is only using 74% of their annual Colorado River allocation of 1,369,000 acre-feet specified in the 1922 Colorado River Compact. The problem is that the allocation was based on an average Colorado flow of 16.4 million acre feet per year, but scientists now think a better guess is almost twenty percent lower than that. The “Management Committee” also does not mention that, according to the Compact, the Upper Basin states (which includes Utah) guarantee that 75 million acre feet will go down the river to lower basin states during each ten-year period. Finally, the Upper Basin states allocate their water by percentages, not amounts. Utah gets 23 percent of the Upper Basin water, not 1,369,000 acre-feet. If there is any.
Meanwhile, some studies show that St. George consumes more water per capita than any other desert city in North America. My friend Steve thought the pipeline was likely to become a “white elephant” for future taxpayers to pay for. Actually, Steve said it was going to become a “white elephant’s trunk”.
8 Responses to “White Elephant’s Trunk”
- 1 Pingback on Aug 30th, 2007 at 11:23 am
- 2 Pingback on Oct 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm
- 3 Pingback on Nov 26th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Last night I listened to a presentation by Lin Alder of the Citizens for Dixie’s Future (citizensfordixie.org) regarding the pipeline. There is an informative slide show on that site, providing information, much of it taken directly from the Washington County Water Conservancy District’s Capital Facilities Plan. It points out the real cost of the pipeline (read more than a billion dollars). Not only does it anticipate that the population of southern Utah will grow to almost 700,00 people, it REQUIRES that growth to pay for the pipeline boondoggle. The Conservancy District can’t bond for that much money. Washington County doesn’t even have that bonding capacity. The STATE rules don’t allow the STATE to bond for that much. They could suspend their own rules, but there’s no guarantee anyone would underwrite the bond because it would stress the state’s capacity.
And get this: The Conservancy District doesn’t have permission from the Bureau of Reclamation to take water out of the Lake. (Even if there was water in the lake.) It seems unlikely they could GET permission, because that water is committed downstream first. St. George doesn’t get water from Lake Powell now. There is this totally crazy scheme going on based on the anticipation that somehow that will miraculously change. And we poor dumb bunnies in Washington County could get sapped with the enormous tax bill for a pipeline without water in it. (We can’t let it get that far, can we?)
CDF has choices outlined. Some of them seem pretty out there. For example, they ask Washington County folks to live on less than 300 gallons of water per day, per person. Come on. How could we do that? Tuscon folks can live on less than 200 gallons per day, but here in Dixie we need to water all our golf courses, keep our driveways washed and our lawns nice.
Someday soon, I hope we get to vote on whether we should waste our money on a pipeline. The Conservancy District is not a board of elected officials. That are taxing us without us getting a chance to choose who they are. They are representing us without our permission, so they are taxing us without representation. Time for a tea party!
It’s hard to grasp the circular, illogical reasoning behind even considering the Lake Powell to St. George pipeline. Some points . . .
First, is the amount expected to be taken out by the pipeline a non-accountable withdrawal separate from the Colorado River Compact? If so, how is that fair, let alone legal? If it part of the regular Utah withdrawal, then how are the other recipients accommodated?
Second, why the assumption that Washington County’s growth is going to happen regardless of the pipeline? Seems to me the amount Washington County can grow is pretty damn dependent on availability of water.
Finally, if Lake Powell is already in a depleted state — and not expected to rejuvenate anytime soon — how can anyone think there is water available for withdrawal by Washington County?
What are people thinking? I know one thing they are NOT thinking about: an inexorably growing population dooms all, especially in a water sensitive areas such as this. That’s the elephant in the living room people need to recognize and actually do something about.
I’m not holding my breath.
Steve is a long-time email buddy of mine. I’ve come to value Steve’s perspective and especially the interesting stuff he sends me over the years. It’s interesting that we used to live in the same town but I’ve never actually met him in person! It’s a sign of the times we live in, I guess.
In any case, Steve is absolutely right about Lake Powell not even coming close to having enough water to satisfy all the demands.
* A developer is planning on building a monster water park near Phoenix. That will make certain Arizona uses their complete share. (More likely, it will fuel Arizona’s lawsuits.)
* A nuclear power plant is proposed near Green River Utah to use more of Utah’s share … that they don’t have anyway.
In the responses to this, Fay Cope wrote on Aug 28th, 2007 that it is: “Time for a tea party!”
Where will she get the water??!!!?
Springdale is one of the few communities that doesn’t belong to the Washington County Water Conservancy District (the Board that is forcing the Lake Powell Pipeline down the throats of taxpayers). That’s because we have our own sources of water that manage for us quite well, thank you so very much!