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Show PROVO-WEBER i RIVER UNIT IS SANCTIONED Modified Report Includes Recommendation Rec-ommendation for Dam on Provo River. Recommendation- for the construction construc-tion of a dam on the Provo river and the completion of an intensive study of the water supply and storage stor-age possibilities of the Provo river system both from an irrigation and power standpoint, was included in the modified committee report of the Utah Water Storage commission relative rel-ative to the first unit of the proposed pro-posed reclamation work in Utah. "The prospects for an- early consummation con-summation of the Utah lake recla- mation work has never looked bet-1 ter than at the present time," said j Secretary E. S. Hinckley, in com-j menting on the action of the com-1 mission in adopting the modified re-! port. "The further investigation and consideration of the Provo river system should be a great aid to the four counties especially interested inter-ested in that system. It should also be an aid to the Utah lake and the Provo bay unit of the project." The report will be forwarded immediately im-mediately to Dr. Elwood Mead, commissioner com-missioner of the United States Reclamation Rec-lamation service and favorable action ac-tion is expected which will insure thd appropriation of $1,500,000 for the completion of the Provo-Weber unit of the proposed larger project. pro-ject. Harmony prevailed at the meeting of the Water Storage commission in the capital Tuesday night and everyone congratulated himself that united action by the committee members mem-bers was at last a certainty. At the suggestion of J. R. Mur-dock. Mur-dock. the original reDort of the mm- mi t tee selected to recommend to the commission the first unit of the project pro-ject was modified as follows : "Your committee also recommends recom-mends : "The construction of a dam on the Provo river. "That the. study of the water supply and storage possibilities of the Provo river system be promptly completed, having in mind the highest high-est possible development thereof, both of irrigation and power. Your committee confidently believes that the owners of the -power development develop-ment thereon will co-operate with the state of Utah to the end that the best possible use may be made of the waters of Provo river. Existing Ex-isting rights, both power and irrigation, irriga-tion, must be recognized and fully protected. In the opinion of your committee, co-operation will permit the building of reservoirs on the Provo river of capacity sufficient to care for a particularly full development devel-opment for the lands of Wasatch, Utah and Salt Lake and part of Tooele counties." In all other regards the report will go to Dr. Mead the same as first drawn, by the special committee. com-mittee. It provides that water for the development of Weber and Davis counties be stored by the government's gov-ernment's construction of a 74,000 acre-foot reservoir at Echo on the Weber river; for construction of a diversion dam and canal at Oakley, above Echo, through wrhich water not needed to fill water rights of Weber users would be transfered to the Provo river; that Utah lake be diked I that Provo bay be reclaimed and that an immense storage reservoir reser-voir be created out of Utah lake, from which1 water would be taken for irrigating land in Utah and Salt Lake counties. The commission adopted as a statement of its policy the following paragraph of a letter written by Lloyd Garrison, state engineer, to United States Senator Reed Smoot, on August 29 : "It is my thought that the entire project should be developed even-1 tually as one project. Various units : will be developed as money can be1 obtained, but fillings should be and 1 in fact, have been made covering the entire project and water appropriated appro-priated under these fillings should be placed in the same condition as regards priority over the entire basin. As much water as can be diverted di-verted from the Weber river should be diverted into the Provo for use of the southern parts of the basin, the only limitation to such diversion being be-ing that the northern counties shall not have taken from them more water wa-ter than will make the distribution equitable. The Weber and Provo rivers should be treated as one unit and all of the lands irrigated therefrom there-from should be treated as if they lie within one watershed. There should be an equitable distribution of the waters of the two rivers so that nil of the counties lying within the basin' which may be irrigated from the two sources will receive the same consideration, bearing In mind such limiting factors as may ei'ist. j which factors when applied will re-' suit in an equitable distribution of the water." The secretary of the commission was instructed to forward a copy of the statement of policy to Dr. Mead with the resolution approving selection selec-tion of the three-part project. |