A groundwater rush appears to be unfolding in Utah’s arid southwest corner, where various schemes are under consideration to conjure water from deep aquifers under desert valleys that are already beyond fully allocated.
Local businessmen apply for 50,000 acre-feet of water rights in a place that’s already overallocated.
The idea is to supplement farmers operating around Beryl and Enterprise. These water users are subject to a groundwater management plan that is gradually reducing the amount of water they can use, according to proponents LaDel Laub and Jared Holt, who filed the application on April 25 on half of a new entity called Escalante Valley Partners LLC.
“It seems like the drier the times get the more schemes emerge that there are new water sources that have never been tapped before. There is no science behind these applications and very likely there is no source that could meet the demands of the applicants,” Roerink said. “This is a highly contested basin that has been adjudicated and there is a groundwater plan in place. When we look at the aquifers that do exist there is a lot of connectivity.
Under this plan Basin 71 water users are to reduce their withdrawals from 109,000 acre-feet to 59,000 acre-feet over the next 100 years. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the region’s growers after more than two decades of drought, increasing demand for groundwater. Last week, the State Engineer sent “cease use” letters to ranchers and farmers who hold rights to the Virgin River and its tributaries. Citing the streams’ diminished flows, the letter instructs water users to stop pulling water if their priority dates are 1901 or later.
Holt serves as general counsel to Robert Holt Farms, a major agricultural producer in the area. He filed papers incorporating Escalante Valley Partners LLC on April 19, less than a week before they filed for the water rights application.But in an emailed statement, Holt said they are following the lead set by Washington County Water Conservancy District, which recently filed an, about 30 miles east of Enterprise.
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