News Flash: Utah Needs More Water!

Why Conserve When You Can Dam?

By Amy Seigel, 10-02-06

Apparently, the Wasatch Front just needs more water. In Washington last Wednesday the House passed a bill that would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the environmental effects and financial costs of raising the Arthur V. Watkins Dam. The Watkins Dam encloses Willard Bay in Weber County, a reservoir of 215,000 acre-feet, with a surface area of more than 9,900 acres. The proposed expansion—raising the dam a mere 1-2 feet—could potentially increase the storage capacity of Willard Bay by as much as 50,000 or 70,000 acre-feet.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who sponsored this little bit of legislation, told the Salt Lake Tribune that “Water is key to the survival and growth of our state, and everyone knows we need more of it.” While Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted in a Deseret News interview that “Utah is the second-driest state in the country, and Weber County doesn't have enough water to meet its growth needs right now.” Senator Hatch went on to comment that “Thousands rely on the Weber Basin reservoirs for drinking water and agriculture. Weber's one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, so it's crucial that we increase water capacity to meet the increased demand.”

The trouble is, of course, that at some point in perhaps the very near future, there just isn’t going to be infinite amounts of this precious recourse just sitting around waiting to be dammed up and piped in to ever-growing western cities. While it seems logical to simply expand an existing structure rather than deal with the environmental consequences of damming yet another western waterway, the need for an environmental study on the effect of the proposed expansion clearly illustrates that we just don’t yet know what the ecological impact may be.

Here’s an idea. Call it novel if you wish. Why not, instead of funding studies for raising existing dams or building new ones, put the money into conservation? At some point, we are going to run out of rivers, drain our aquifers, and not have any more “of it” left to tap. I’m not quite sure what it will take for our state representatives to realize that any amount of dam building is going to be, at best, a quick fix for a worsening problem. So while the Wasatch Front may soon be experiencing a surplus of drinking water, do your kids a favor and think twice before letting it run—it may soon be running out.

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