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Show Led Flee? aqueducv bid opening postponed Bid openings on the controversial Red Fleet aqueduct have been postponed post-poned until May 14 because of minor specification changes. Originally, bids were to be opened April 28. Over 500 Valley residents have signed a petition to stop construction on the aqueduct and develop the Ashley Creek drainage for Ashley Valley. Copies of the petition with a letter outlining objections to the Red Fleet project were sent to state and local public officials last week. According to Stan Anderson, signer of the letter against the aqueduct, by using natural aqueducts as the Ashley Creek drainage, pumping costs required for the Red Fleet aqueduct could be eliminated. "We have attempted to work with and reason with the non-elected officials of-ficials involved in this matter," Anderson An-derson says in his letter, "but find we are mostly ignored." "The biggest portion of those who signed the petition," Anderson said, "commented that they didn't want to give up Ashley Springs as drinking water." "We most assuredly did not and would not vote to abandon the purity of Ashley Springs, and instead drink Red Fleet Reservoir water containing human and animal urination, defacation and stagnation...," contends Anderson's letter. Vernal City has contracted for 12,000 acre feet of water from Red Fleet for culinary use which will be delivered through the aqueduct to a treatment plant to be located near Doc's Beach, north of Vernal. The treatment plant is proposed to also treat Ashley Spring water which has been deemed by the Utah State Board of Health as a surface source and in need of total treatment. "Construction of the aqueduct is the only way we can proceed with the repayment contract with Vernal City, said Lawrence Siddoway, Uintah Water Conservancy District. Siddoway said he thought treatment of reservoir water would be easier than from Ashley Springs because during spring runoff, Ashley Springs has excessive sediment which slows treatment. Being able to treat both Red Fleet and Ashley Springs water in the treatment plant would make it more flexible, Siddoway said. Anderson contends that the cost of Red Fleet "being thrust upon us. ..far exceeds what we thought we voted for and is not justifiable in relation to our present overall ability to repay." "There is a program designed to take over Dry Fork and Ashley Creek water west in domino fashion, asserts Anderson An-derson from a 1951 map by the Bureau of Reclamation showing an aqueduct from Brush Creek to a Maeser (Continued on Page 16) Aqueduct - - - (Continued from Page 1) Reservoir site, to Whiterocks and then on to Starvation Reservoir near Duchesne. The map does not show an aqueduct coming from Red Fleet Reservoir as proposed by the Red Fleet aqueduct, but according to Anderson, is proof of a secret program to transport water from Brush Creek and Ashley Creek to the Wasatch Front. "Considering the amount of water to be drained from the Rock Creek and Duchesne River drainages," Anderson says, "to make the Strawberry Reservoir enlargement and subsequent adqueuct system justified, will undoubtedly un-doubtedly leave the Duchesne River users to have shortages unless, of course, replenished by the Flaming Gorge aqueduct system to Starvation Reservoir." Several times Bureau of Reclamation officals have refuted charges of planning to transport water from the Ashley Valley to the Wasatch Front. The latest refutation was last April when Bureau officials met in Vernal to discuss the cost of Red Fleet water with local citizens. At that meeting, Howard Pearson, Bureau of Reclamation, promised Vernal residents that no water would be transported outside Ashley Valley. Anderson's letter concludes that "in obtaining these signatures (519) we can safely conclude that at least 95 percent of the people want to continue drinking Ashley Spring water and not Red Fleet water." Among the signatures on the petition against the Red Fleet aqueduct is Rep. Gayle McKeachnie. Bid opening on the aqueduct will be at 10 a.m. May 14 at the Bureau of Reclamation office in Duchesne. Siddoway anticipates the low bidder to be much lower than $20 million for the 10-mile aqueduct. Bid opening date was changed from April 28 to May 14 because of some minor changes in specifications. According to Siddoway, such changes are not uncommon with these types of bid openings. |