Local Waters Alternative to the Lake Powell Pipeline Revisited

Local Waters Alternative to the Lake Powell Pipeline Revisited

– By Lisa Rutherford –

While state and local officials keep banging the drums for the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP) most reasonable people who have been tracking the project and the fate of the Colorado River realize that the LPP’s future is surely doomed. So what does Washington County’s water future look like without the LPP water?

The revised Local Waters Alternative to the Lake Powell Pipeline 2.0 (Local Waters 2.0) came out recently. The original Local Waters report was produced in 2013 by Western Resource Advocates and challenged the foundation upon which the pipeline project was founded. Now, in 2021, the Local Waters Alternative has had an update by Western Resource Advocates and Peter Mayer of Water Demand Management, both well-respected organizations. The data have been updated based on information provided in the 2020 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) by the Bureau of Reclamation, but the conclusion remains the same as in 2013: “…the local supply option is less vulnerable, more robust, and more resilient than the expensive and highly uncertain Lake Powell Pipeline. A local water supply option with the recommended water demand management measures offers significant advantages to Washington County water users that have been ignored as plans for the Lake Powell Pipeline are promoted. There are substantial financial, legal, and political risks associated with the Lake Powell Pipeline. The local supply option significantly alleviates these issues and is a matter of planning and political will.”

The document is extensive so I’ve selected a few highlights and recommendations to share.  First, for those who are new to the area and may not know about the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, it is proposed to carry 86,249 acre-feet of water annually—about 28 billion gallons!— from Lake Powell to Washington County’s Sand Hollow Reservoir. An acre-foot of water is a foot of water covering an acre or about 326,000 gallons of water. The Bureau of Reclamation forecasts the lake to be only 29% full by this September—the lowest level since the reservoir first started filling in 1963. The State of Utah and our Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) assert that the Colorado River is the most reliable water source in the Western U.S., but those of us who have tracked this project feel they are very wrong.

According to the Local Water Alternative to the Lake Powell Pipeline 2.0 (Local Waters 2.0), based on information from the 2020 Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the LPP (DEIS) and other official updates, 121,905 acre-feet of water will be available annually in this county without the LPP water. This includes existing and planned culinary and secondary water. However, Local Waters 2.0 points out that the “WCWCD and municipalities hold substantial additional surface and groundwater rights not included in the DEIS.” Local Waters 2.0 authors reviewed water rights holdings and determined there are from 50,000 AF to 150,000 AF, at least, additional water supplies, some of which may require additional treatment but could still be part of a cost-effective water management plan as water treatment methods continue to advance.

Additionally, the water district holds Virgin River water rights and its tributaries totaling more than 100,000 AF yet the district reports just 32,047 AF as a reliable culinary yield. The municipalities also hold additional water rights which are not listed in the DEIS. Having a document such as the DEIS that omits such important information begs many questions. We can only hope that we get some answers in the future.

It’s clear that the DEIS does not provide a clear water picture for Washington County’s water future.

To better manage this water which would serve this county’s growth for many, many decades Local Waters 2.0 provides several recommendations. First, the state’s and county’s water use projections show that secondary water use will continue to grow as our area grows. But, Local Waters 2.0 says that secondary water systems should be capped at their current use of about 15,663 AF per year and additional use not factored in future needs because that “has improperly inflated per capita demands in the DEIS by at least 20%.” Also, during wet years more water from the Virgin Rivers should be diverted and stored. Treatment and utilization of secondary water for culinary use, water reuse, and aquifer storage should be implemented along with recovery and demand management measures described in the report.

The DEIS also shows that water loss will continue to grow as we grow. The 15.4% water loss factor applied to our water demand over a sixty-year period requires serious management. Even the water district’s own conservation report provided by Maddaus Water Management Inc. made this recommendation.

To reduce outdoor water demand, municipal landscape design rules should better reflect our local climate situation to require less supplemental water.  These requirements are easier to implement at the time of construction than retrofitting existing water-wasting landscapes. Along with better municipal ordinances, the water district should implement a water budgeting approach to help customers better manage their existing water use.

Furthermore, Washington County’s groundwater resources are not fully explored in the DEIS leaving this part of our county’s water future incomplete. Local Waters 2.0 acknowledges that managed aquifer recharge and recovery is already underway but that it should be expanded to maximize that storage which offers advantages over surface storage where evaporation and environmental concerns exist.

The revised portfolio of our future water supply provided in Local Waters 2.0 along with updated demand management programs and a revised demand forecast provides a water future for Washington County with a much lower cost, higher reliability, less risk and brings our future supply, depending on a variety of factors, to between 126,905 AF to 136,905 AF of water (reliable yield). That’s enough to grow Washington County for a good long time when done well! When additional groundwater and surface water supplies not included in the DEIS are added, the supply is even greater.

This is not to say we should continue our profligate water use. It will take reduced usage and increased planning to see this to fruition. These water supplies will need to be developed over time. Local Waters 2.0 proposes that we get our per capita water use down from nearly 300 gallons per capita per day to 184 by 2075, a completely achievable goal—one which many desert communities have already achieved! But the DEIS proposes that our more than 500,000 residents in 2075 would use an average of 277 gpcd making us “one of the most water-inefficient communities in America in that year or any year.”

So Washington County’s future without the Lake Powell Pipeline is not as dire as some assert. We will not die on the vine. Growth will occur but in a more water-wise manner than what we’ve witnessed so far. We just need to be realistic about our water future and acknowledge that we live in the desert.

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