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Show ! 4-man group asked : for CUP settlement Ill By MARC HADDOCK A four-man group representing the different viewpoints about the con-1 con-1 struction of water conveyances to . m0ve water through Northern Utah J c0Unty to Salt Lake County has been asked to work towards a compromise that all the groups involved in the controversy can accept. Utah Gov. Scott Matheson, after deciding that larger groups were t getting nowhere in arriving at a solution for the dilemma surround-1 surround-1 jng the Jordan Reach 4 and Alpine ' Reach 2 aqueducts of the Central 1 Utah Project, asked the men to form I a small group that could deal with I the problem effectively. J! In the Central Utah Water Con- servancy Distict (CUWCD) board meeting last Thursday, Ed Clyde, 1 legal representative of the district, j was approved to represent the district 1 in the discussions. Others who will be involved in the discussions are Don Christiansen, I mayor of Alpine and chairman of the ' Timpanogos Planning Water Management Agency; Joseph Novak, attorney for the Provo River Water 'S Users Association; and Robert Hilbert, board director for Salt Lake County Metropolitan Water District. Both Novak and Hilbert are also members of the CUWCD board of directors. "There are a lot of things that must be done if we are going to solve the problem," Clyde told the board. "The governor felt that there had been a minimum of communication in the matter. He thought the smaller group would encourage more communication com-munication and help to settle the problem. Negotiations will focus on different plans to transport water from CUP's Bonneville unit through the county. Original plans included the two pressurized aqueducts. But city councils and individuals in the towns through which the pipelines would pass oppose the plan because of the disruption the construction would cause. The Timpanogos agency was formed to support an alternative which would use the existing Murdock Canal in some form. Initial plans called for a box culvert for the plan canal that would carry all the water. But studies showed that proposal would cost considerably more than the two pipelines. Current discussion is focusing on an enlarged and fenced Murdock Canal, which would cost about $20 million less than the aqueducts. That proposal is a compromise at best. The CUWCD Board maintains that the aqueducts would make it possible to send treated water into Salt Lake Valley and that the delivery points could be better controlled. The Provo River Water Users enter into the picture as, owners of the Murdock Canal, and they have stated they would prefer to not see the canal used to carry the CUP water. The governor is planning to meet with the persons involved in the controversy soon to resolve the problem. He was planning to meet with them last week until it became apparent that the groups involved were still too far apart for such a meeting to arrive at a compromise. The smaller group will be meeting to come up with a proposal it can present to the Governor within the next few months. |