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27 May 2009
Utah Manages Competing Demands for Water from Colorado River
Water needed for agriculture, municipalities, industry, energy, environment
Littleton, Colorado — In a region of the United States that is quite dry, the central Utah water project and smaller projects bring water from the Colorado River to the Utah population centers in Salt Lake City, Provo and Ogden.
Most water in Utah is used for agriculture, followed closely by municipal and industrial uses, Robert King, chief of interstate streams with the Utah Division of Water Resources, told America.gov. As in most western states, the oldest water claims with the highest priority in Utah are usually for agricultural users. “And even if you have a water right, you are not guaranteed water if there is no water or low-water conditions” because older water rights have seniority, King said.
Water is also needed for industrial use, such as mining and cooling of power-generating plants, as well as hydroelectric power generation via dams, which do not consume the water but require sufficient water levels to produce significant amounts of electricity.
In the future, water may be required for energy development of oil shale and tar sands, but “this is a big question mark in the West,” King said. The amount of water needed depends on the technological processes used to extract the oil, which is uncertain, he explained.
In addition, for tourism and recreational water use, levels of rivers and Lake Powell need to be kept up in the summer, he said.
A recovery program for four endangered fish species also requires water to keep flowing in Utah rivers. Under the Endangered Species Act, several states, the federal government and other groups (including municipalities, environmental groups and industrial users that generate power) work together to help these fish populations recover.
A significant percentage of the Colorado River originates in Utah. It passes on to several other states and Mexico, which depend on their apportionment of water being left in the river and not consumed upstream. Under the Law of the River, the upper basin states (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming) are legally obligated to not cause the river flows to drop below 75 million acre-feet (92,511 million cubic meters) in any 10-year window and, if river flows get too low, to curtail water use within the state.
“We have never had that happen yet,” King said, “but it is foreseeable given increasing use and factoring in climate change.”
Utah also regularly coordinates water usage reports with the other states and the federal government. If water curtailment is necessary, the four upper basin states are jointly responsible for restricting water use.
More information is available at the Utah Division of Water Resources Web site.
