OCR Text |
Show ; Legislature could aid development of Utah underground water Development of substantial quantities of underground water in Utah could be facilitated facili-tated by a legal clarification1, according to Utah Founda-'i tion, the private, non-profit research agency. The special session of the Legislature convening June 28 could initiate initi-ate in-depth studies to determine de-termine the exact situation and perhaps prepare legislation legisla-tion to accelerate the development develop-ment of a resource whose importance is emphasized by the current drought. According to a published report of the Utah Division of Water Resources, about one million acre-feet of water seep into the ground in Utah each year. The report further estimates es-timates that approximately 400,000 acre feet of this amount, half of it along the Wasatch Front, is not now being developed and used. An acre-foot is the amount of water which would cover an acre of ground to the depth of one foot. It translates to 325,851 gallons, which is the amount consumed by an average aver-age household each year for both inside and outside uses, without restrictions. All underground water originates ori-ginates as precipitation on the surface and then seeps into the ground. Much of it collects in underground pools known as aquifers and some can be brought to the surface and put to use through the digging of wells. So long as the amount taken out of the ground does not exceed the amount which is annually returned by seepage, seep-age, the water source will produce indefinitely, the Foundation points out in a Research Brief this week. One obstacle to further development of underground water is a decision of the Utah Supreme Court which held that a person drilling a well may be held liable to compensate compen-sate the owner of an already established well if the press-tire press-tire in the older well is lowered. The court decision was divided and a dissenting opinion pointed out that this philosophy "does not serve ' the fundamental purpose of , our water law, providing the fullest conservation and highest high-est development of water by making it available to all users . in the most economical and convenient way. A later Supreme Court decision held that the driller of a well was not required to compensate other water users for loss of pressure but water experts and legal authorities are not certain just how and to what extent the later court ruling modifies or supersedes the earlier. 'There appears to be general gen-eral agreement that the uncertainty un-certainty on this issue tends to restrict' development of needed water and that it would be advantageous to have the point clarified," the Foundation points out. The special, legislative session sess-ion is restricted in what it can consider to matters placed before it by the Governor, but the appointment of a study committee to investigate a water question, would appear to fall within the Governor's designation of drought relief, the Foundation notes. As there would be no question of immediate legislation, it is not believed that appointment of the study committee would take more than a few minutes of the legislators' time. Unused groundwater is not only going unused in the face of critical need, but along the Wasatch Front substantial amounts are wasting into the Great Salt Lake to raise the lake level. "It is ironic that the state and the Wasatch Front counties coun-ties are faced with spending millions to develop supplies of fresh water, and at the same time contemplating spending additional millions to keep the lake from flooding," the Foundation Foun-dation notes. "Putting water that is now wasted to use before it reaches the lake could assist in meeting both problems." It is recognized that development devel-opment of underground water is more complicated and difficult diffi-cult than developing surface supplies, and that some underground un-derground water can never be effectively used. Water experts ex-perts agree, however, that substantial quantities of water wa-ter that are potentially usable do exist and should be developed devel-oped in this water-scarce reg- |