Water Management Improvement

Section 207 of the Act, entitled; "Water Management Improvement", authorizes a comprehensive program to study and improve water management within the CUWCD. Also included are a Water pricing Policy Study, the Study of Coordinated Operations, and the Utah Water Conservation Advisory Board.

There are six stated purposes of section 207:

·  encourage the conservation and wise use of water;

·  reduce the probability and duration of periods necessitating extraordinary curtailment of water use;

·  achieve beneficial reductions in water use and system costs;

·  prevent or eliminate unnecessary depletion of waters in order to assist in the improvement and maintenance of water quantity, quality, and streamflow conditions necessary to augment water supplies and support fish, wildlife, recreation, and other public benefits;

·  make prudent and efficient use of currently available water prior to any importation of Bear River water into Salt Lake County, Utah; and

·  provide a systematic approach to the accomplishment of these purposes and an objective basis for measuring their achievement.

The Act defines water conservation measures as actions taken to improve the efficiency of the storage, conveyance, distribution, or use of water, exclusive of dams, reservoirs, or wells. This definition and the stated purposes of section 207 quoted above provide the basis for what will be considered water conservation with respect to implementing water conservation measures and what will be counted toward achieving the CUWCD water conservation goal. Based upon the definition of water conservation from the Act, the amount of water conservation derived from a specific measure will be determined by the increase in the efficiency of the storage, conveyance, distribution, or use of the water.

Section 207(e)(2) authorizes $50,000,000 in federal funds to finance up to 65 percent of the cost of implementing water conservation measures within CUWCD. The remaining funding, a minimum of 35 percent (approximately $27,000,000), will come from local sources. It is also stated within this section that $10,000,000 is authorized and shall be made available for conservation measures in Wasatch County. (These funds were used in the construction of the Wasatch County Water Efficiency Project - WCWEP)

Section 1 (d) of Public Law 107-366, signed January 23, 2002, allows unexpended budget authority to be used to implement water conservation measures under section 207, including use of reverse osmosis membrane technologies, water recycling, and conjunctive use... Of the remaining unexpended budget authority, it has been determined that a total of $145,000,000 in additional federal funds could be available under the existing Section 207(e)(2) legislation (subject to a record of decision on the ULS project). The remaining 35 percent (approximately $50,750,000) would come from local sources.