April 2019 Newsletter

Dean Harmon May 10, 2019

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

By Gene Shawcroft

Dear Friends,

My hat’s off to Gawain for his thoughtful and steady leadership of the Association over his many years of service. Although we wish him well in retirement and will miss him, I’m thrilled he will still be involved in some of his water capacities. He and Addie have been a wonderful part of the water users’ lives for many years and their constructive influence will be felt for decades.

Thanks again to Barbara and Carly for their tremendous effort in organizing yet another wonderful conference. The attendance was up again this year and I’m not sure how they pull it off, but each conference is a little better than the previous one.

Although the success of the conference stands on its own merits, leaving St. George with an incoming storm and knowing the snowpack across the state is above average made the conference even better and made for a great trip home. The purple, dark blue and even a few light blue colors representing
numbers from nearly 200% to over 100% of snowpack across the entire state is something to get excited about. It has been many years since all areas of the state have been above 100%. My only hope is those brown, dark red and yellow colored areas that we have seen over much of the state and for many of the last two decades don’t show up again for many years. We are extremely blessed this year and perhaps can fill our reservoirs both above and below ground this summer.

The only thing better than the great water industry who make sure we all have a clean and safe drink of water and water for our crops and livelihoods. You are a dedicated group of individuals with whom I am honored to work and serve. The careers of innovation that I see among you is tremendous. Many of you work long hours, many more than your customers realize, in addition to the likely weightier part of the job which is the worry and pressure that is ever present. An extreme amount of pressure rides on your shoulders and you handle it all so very capably. All I can say is job well done and THANK YOU.

Happy runoff to all!
Gene

WATER & THE LAW

Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan

Devin L. Bybee, SMITH HARTVIGSEN PLLC

The Colorado River, which flows through seven states and into Mexico, is an integral resource in the western United States,“provid[ing] water to nearly 40 million people for municipal use, supply[ing] water to irrigate nearly 5.5 million acres of land, and is the lifeblood for at least 22 federal recognized tribes …, 7 National Wildlife Refuges, 4National Recreation Areas, and 11 National Parks.” Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, at 3, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION (Dec. 2012). Additionally, “[h]ydropower facilities along the Colorado River provide more than 4,200megawatts of electrical generating capacity, helping to meet the power needs of the West and offset the use of fossil fuels.” Id.

Unfortunately, severe and longstanding drought has plagued the Colorado River system for nearly two decades. Lake Powell and Lake Mead, two reservoirs that are integral to the Colorado River system’s ability to provide crucial water and power resources to about 40 million people each year, are at historic lows not seen since Lake Powell began filling in the 1960s. 84 Fed. Reg. 2244.

Under the Colorado River Compact, which was executed in 1922 during unusually wet years, the Upper Basin States (Colorado, NewMexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin States (Arizona, California, and Nevada)were each allocated 7.5 million acre-feet per year. Because the amount of water available from the Colorado River is declining due to drought conditions and increasing demand for water, without voluntary action, each of the seven member states and Mexico are facing mandatory curtailments under the Colorado River Compact and likely contentious, protracted, and expensive litigation.

In December 2017, Brenda Burman, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, tasked the member states to develop individual drought contingency plans, which would outline how each state would curtail its water use to protect the supply of water in the Colorado River system. Colorado River Drought Contingency Plans, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION (Feb. 1,2019) (last visited Feb. 22, 2019). With the exception of Arizona, all of the member states completed their drought contingency plans on time. The Upper Basin States focused their efforts on maintaining critical levels in Lake Powell, while the Lower Basin States focused on requiring each state to contribute additional water to Lake Mead. Id. However, because not every state finalized the drought contingency plans, the Department of the Interior published notice in the Federal Register on February 6, 2019, requesting that each of the member states’ governors provide potential actions to Interior about what was appropriate to reduce the risks to the Colorado River and what actions could be done before August 2019. 84 Fed. Reg. 2244. On March19, 2019, each of the states finalized their drought contingency plans and submitted the same to Congress, which is now working on legislation to approve the drought contingency plans.

WATER OUTLOOK

By Troy Brosten

Another great month of wet weather that added, on average, almost six inches of water to our snowpack. The last two months of February and March really kicked Utah’s snowpack to the front of the line. Across the state our snowpack was 140% normal ranging from 115% in Northeastern Uinta’s to over 200% in our most southern basins. The cool, wet weather has staved off early melt out and added to our snowpack. April 1 forecast streamflow range from 105% for the Bear River at Stewart Dam up to 293% at South Creek above Reservoir near Monticello. All of Utah’s forecast point are currently predicting over 100% runoff this year. Soil moisture is a mixed bag with dryer soils in the north and about average to the south.

This could reduce runoff in basin with dryer soils and cause minimal reductions in basins with average soil moisture. Currently we can expect most of our reservoirs to top off with our remaining reservoirs gaining a substantial amount of water. It looks like the wet and cool weather will continue through, at least, mid-April. This will delay our runoff period
and add to our high elevation snowpack.

WEATHER UPDATE

National Weather Service

By Brian McInerney

We’re now in the first week of April, and questions are being asked about our flood threat. Flood threat! How cool is that. Just last year we were hoping to reach 50% water volumes from spring snowmelt runoff in most
of the state. Now we have an abundance of water, while we’re not exactly floating away, the water situation is brighter this year.

Why is that you ask? Well it’s due to mainly two reasons. The first being that our dreaded friend High Pressure Ridging (Quasi-Stationary High Amplitude Atmospheric Wave Pattern) has gone away for this year. The high has either oscillated out of the Pacific, or gotten smaller and insignificant down by Mexico. Either way, the door was open for storms off the Pacific to come roaring into our area, in many cases accompanied by the sub-tropical moisture tap otherwise known as the Atmospheric River. The second reason is the fact that we’ve been colder than average all winter long. Most places experienced an average of 3 degrees below average for the period.

So there you go. Lot’s of snow and cold temperatures. Now we’ll see what kind of spring weather will shape this runoff. That will be another story, and an answer to the question of what’s with our flood threat.

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR’S CORNER

By Carly Burton

Thanks to Gawain Snow

At the Water Users Workshop in St. George last month, Gawain Snow announced that he was retiring as General Manager of the Uintah Water Conservancy District. Gawain also served as president of the Utah Water Users Association for the past year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gawain for his leadership and his dedication to the Utah Water Users Association for so many years. His knowledge and expertise regarding important water issues in Utah is legendary among the water community and he will be missed by all who associated with him. We hope Gawain and Addie have happy and rewarding days ahead working on their family farm. Good luck.

2019 Utah Water Users Workshop

Now that the dust has settled a little and Barbara and I are able to catch our breath, I am happy to report that we had another very successful Workshop in St. George last month. It looks like we will be coming in at over 900 who participated. For the first time we had every room space and time slot filled with 55 topics over the two day event. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the co-sponsors, vendors, golf sponsors and registrants who helped make made this event such a great success. I would like to also thank the planning committee for their dedicated efforts in lining up the topics and speakers for our event. If you did not get a copy of the evaluation form please go to our website at www.utahwaterusers.com and go to Workshop 2019 documents and you can find the evaluation form. Fill it out and sent it to us so we can get your feedback. Next year the Workshop is scheduled for March 16-18, 2020. We look forward to seeing you there!

NWRA Update

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army are publishing for public comment proposed rules defining the scope of waters federally regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). This proposal is the second step in a comprehensive, two-step process intended to review and revise the definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) consistent with the Executive Order signed on February 28, 2017, “Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the `Waters of the United States’ Rule.” The proposed rule making is intended to increase CWA program predictability and consistency by increasing clarity as to the scope of “waters of the United States” federally regulated under the Act. This proposed definition revision is also intended to clearly implement the overall objective of the CWA to restore and maintain the quality of the
nation’s waters while respecting State and tribal authority over their own land and water resources.

NWRA and the associated member states have collectively filed comments with EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers on the proposed rule making. A summary of NWRA’s comments is as follows:

  1. NWRA supports the proposed exemption of surface features that flow only in direct response to precipitation; however, there are still concerns that ephemeral features may still be considered tributaries under the proposed rule.
  2. Irrigation drainage features should be exempted from the proposed rule making because, except for irrigation return flows, these drains would be dry.
  3. Any man made ditch which carries irrigation water should be exempted from the rule making.
  4. Water reuse and recycling structures including retention, detention and infiltration basins should be excluded.
  5. Stormwater control facilities should be excluded.

For additional details on this important position statement you can go to NWRA’s website at www.nwra@nwra.org.