The case against the Lake Powell Pipeline

Conserve Southwest Utah (CSU) opposes the Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP) because the arguments supporting it are based on fear rather than authentic and careful analysis.

Indeed, the history of Colorado River management is fraught with ignoring reality. In truth, we have enough local water. We have better uses for $2 billion. And even if money was no object, the odds of Lake Powell having the necessary water surplus are slim to none. We can do better and it’s time we try.

The LPP is unnecessary

Washington County will grow, sure, and water is crucial for that growth. But a larger population doesn’t necessarily need more water, as proven time and again in the southwest. Even here in St. George, water use reported to the state in 2010 was about 27,000 ac-ft. By 2017 it was less — about 24,000 ac-ft — despite the population growing from 70,000 to 80,000 in the same period.

Washington County has improved its water use, but not as much as water agencies would have us believe. Most of the “conservation” claimed is from infrastructure that was already planned to augment supply, such as putting irrigation canals in pipes.

Very little has been done to encourage us all to use less water in our daily lives. We still see people sweeping their driveways with a hose.

Utah is the second driest state in the country, but here in Washington County, we use more than 300 gallons per person per day when the EPA reports the rest of the country uses about 179 gallons. At the U.S. rate, our local supplies would be adequate long past 2060.

The Lake Powell Pipeline is too costly

The Lake Powell Pipeline is the most expensive, highest risk, and least flexible of the options we have for meeting our water needs. Cost estimates are now almost $1.8-2.0 billion. The final cost is likely to be much higher. Interest costs add another $2 billion. To pay for all of this, we’ll see increased property taxes, higher impact fees for new construction, and water rates increasing from 84 cents to $3.84 per 1,000 gallons, an increase of 357%. And we’d have to ask the rest of Utah to subsidize the interest rate and forego other needed projects, like highways, education, and health care.

Conservation would be much cheaper, in part because instead of investing a huge lump sum on the LPP all at once we can implement a wide variety of supply improvements and conservation measures incrementally, as needed.

The water right for the Lake Powell Pipeline is too risky

Building the Lake Powell Pipeline is like investing in a gold mine in a foreign country. They promise easy riches, but it’s out of your control and the odds of payoff are really low.

Since the first Colorado River Compact in 1922, politicians have been cherry-picking data on flows to support more water development. In recent years, hydrologists have finally started to convince decision-makers that what we really need are drought contingency plans, not schemes to pull yet more water from an overallocated river.

The LPP depends on water rights from the Colorado River and its tributaries. We cannot ignore that other states already have claims on the Colorado system's shrinking flows and that neither Lake Powell nor Lake Mead has been full for at least 20 years.

What’s more, even within Utah the LPP’s water rights are junior to other major players. Senior rights holders inside and outside Utah include: Northern Ute Tribe, Navajo, and other tribal rights, other federal reserved water rights, the Lower Basin states, Mexico, the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project, and others.

All of this means that LPP proponents simply cannot assure us that water will actually be available for a water project that we can rely on now and into the future.

It is time for public officials and the residents of Southwest Utah to acknowledge that the Lake Powell Pipeline is an unnecessary, costly, and risky solution. Instead, we need a comprehensive Water Management Program, and to live within our means.

For a comprehensive report of the data and analysis that supports these arguments visit the Conserve Southwest Utah website.

Art Haines is the vice president of Conserve Southwest Utah, a nonprofit citizens organization based in St. George.