Water task force starts tough job

By Brittani Lusk
Deseret Morning News
Published: Saturday, June 10, 2006 10:00 p.m. MDT
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Dividing Utah's streams equitably among the agricultural community, municipalities and sportsmen will be a tough call, the Utah Legislature's Water Issues Task Force found Friday as it met for the first time this year.

The task force heard from representatives of the competing interests.

Instream flow rights guarantee, subject to higher priority rights, that a certain amount of water will flow through a portion of a stream for environmental or recreational purposes.

Under the current statute, the Division of Wildlife Resources and the Division of Parks and Recreation may file to change existing water rights into instream flow rights.

The task force's job is to decide who else may own instream flow rights and under what stipulations, keeping in mind how that would affect other rights.

"The job of the task force is to find a balance," said state engineer Jerry Olds.

The task force first heard from its staff and discussed solutions used by other Western states.

While looking at other solutions, Olds said there are no perfect systems in place, but as far as instream use solutions, Utah is behind other states in the West.

Next the task force heard from Gerald Kinghorn, an attorney proposing amendments to the statute that would allow water treatment facilities to purchase instream flow rights to keep their costs down.

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If there is less water in a stream, the treatment plant must emit a better product into the stream to maintain water quality. If there is more water in the stream, then the plants can emit a lower-quality product into the stream, which lowers the cost of producing a suitable quality of water.

If facilities had the option to acquire rights, they could save the public millions of dollars, Kinghorn said.

Timothy Hawks, an attorney representing Trout Unlimited, an organization that works to protect fisheries, addressed the task force.

Hawks said the organization represents some 2,200 Utahns. His proposed amendments would allow his organization to gain instream flow rights to protect and restore fish habitats by working with the agricultural community.

Todd Bingham vice president of the Utah Farm Bureau, admonished the task force to make minor changes and not totally revamp the statutes. He urged care in making policy choices. "We would just encourage that you use caution as you move forward," Bingham said.

The next meeting is July 13.

"This is going to be an interesting discussion over the next couple of months," said Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, task force chairman.

E-mail: blusk@desnews.com

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