(KCPW News) The state is moving forward with plans to build a Lake Powell Pipeline, but some Washington County residents are calling for a referendum to stop it. Citizens for Dixie's Future executive director Paul Van Dam says the state is forcing citizens to pay for an expensive water project.
"What really needs to happen is full disclosure. I mean this may or may not happen, and people may or may not want it. But they surely shouldn't have to accept it and be charged for it and have to pay this fully back because the state isn't chipping in anything, the federal dollars aren't coming," Van Dam says. "This is all these three counties and mostly Washington County's obligation to pay it all back."
The pipeline would divert water from the Colorado River to meet the estimated population growth in Washington, Kane and Iron counties. In 2006, the Utah Division of Water Resources estimated the cost to build the pipeline at nearly $500 million dollars. Since then, the price has been adjusted upward to about $800 million. But when the interest on the 40-year bonds is included in the estimates, the project's price-tag is closer to $2 [B]billion, says Van Dam. Water Resources Division Deputy Director Eric Millis says these numbers won't be finalized for another five to six years. During this time, he says the pipeline must garner approval from nine different federal agencies, seven agencies in Utah, and six in Arizona.
"People just need to choose," Millis says. "You know, we're not proponents of the project as much as we are trying to facilitate the development of it. We are just doing what we were asked to do."
The Legislature in 2006 passed the Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act, tasking the State Division of Water Resources to conduct a feasibility study and draft a plan for the pipeline.
The Sales Tax Diversion for Water Projects Bill passed the same year, giving the department roughly $8 million to do that work.
