Water District Resurrects Plan to Mine Neighboring County’s Aquifer
The Iron County Water District is advancing its effort to steal its neighbors’ groundwater. Iron County and Cedar City have been over-tapping, or mining, their own groundwater for decades due to wasteful usage. The result is a quickly-dwindling aquifer, destructive sinkholes, and an unsustainable water future.
Instead of solving these core problems through commonsense water conservation and pricing measures, the water district is eyeing a neighboring aquifer in Beaver County’s Pine Valley. The Iron County Water District’s plan is to build an expensive, $260 million pipeline to loot water from Pine Valley and deliver it to Iron County, enabling the region’s continued water waste.
Main Street in Cedar City, Utah. The Iron County Water District wants to burden local residents with massive amounts of debt and hike up water rates by 400 – 700%. Photo: DXR
Main Street in Cedar City, Utah. The Iron County Water District wants to burden local residents with massive
amounts of debt and hike up water rates by 400 – 700%. Photo: DXR
This project has been stalled for a few years until the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resumed its environmental review for the pipeline in May. The BLM will publish a new environmental impact statement this fall despite the exorbitant amounts of debt the project will place on unwitting residents. This debt will require costly water rate increases that will hover between 400 – 700% for Iron County residents.
The Utah Rivers Council partnered with the Great Basin Water Network to educate Utahns about the problems with this boondoggle water project at the Iron County Water Conservatives website. Read more and take action at the link below.