2nd of 3 Utah Counties Backs Out of Destructive, Unnecessary, and Expensive Lake Powell Pipeline

As a glimmer of good news during uncertain times, Utah water cartel members announced that the Kane County Water District is backing out of the proposed $3 billion Lake Powell Pipeline. Yes, you read correctly.

For the last 14 years, the Kane County Water District, claimed – in fact its Executive Director yelled such claims at several legislative committees – that Kane County needed water from the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline. The Kane County Water District is a small water supplier that delivers water to a very small percentage of Kane County’s population. Led by former Utah legislator, Mike Noel, the water agency was widely criticized for failing to prove its claims for needing the water or coming up with a viable plan to pay for the water.

The Moab Daily section of the Colorado River

In 2013, a group of Utah economists performed a lengthy analysis of Pipeline repayment obligations on Kane County residents and found that massive increases to water rates, impact fees and property taxes would be required to pay for the water. The Utah Division of Water Resources and the Kane County Water District claimed they could repay Pipeline costs but provided no substance to their claims.  

Then in March 2018, the Utah Rivers Council filed a complaint with the Utah Attorney General’s Office seeking an investigation of Rep. Noel and what role the Utah Division of Water Resources had in changing the official documents for the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline. Our complaint requested a formal investigation to determine if Mr. Noel used government resources to benefit his own private land holdings. The complaint alleges that Mr. Noel may have used his position as both a legislator and as the Executive Director of the Kane County Water District to advance the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which might have delivered water to his land holdings in Kane County, estimated to be valued at roughly $4-9 million.

The map below shows Mr. Noel’s personal properties and the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline alignment, as shown in yellow. Roughly 10 miles before the Pipeline reached Kane County’s largest town of Kanab, the Pipeline was slated to make a 90 degree corner and head ~7 miles up Johnson Canyon road, where project documents state the entire Pipeline water supply would be pumped into the ground, just a stone’s throw from Mr. Noel’s properties.

Mr. Noel's Substantial Landholdings in Johnson Canyon

The Division of Water Resources has never responded to why the agency revised the official Lake Powell Pipeline planning documents to alter the alignment of the Pipeline. During a presentation on the Lake Powell Pipeline at the August 22, 2017 meeting of the Legislative Water Development Commission, Mike Noel claimed:

“The growth that’s happening in this area is astronomical. We need to look at a future for these children...All of these communities in southern Utah are growing and expanding and the key component is that we’ve got to have the water…We absolutely need it, we need it because of these kids you see on this picture right here….Having this additional 4,000 acre feet of water come in it’s absolutely needed.”

For over 10 years, the Utah Rivers Council has led the opposition to the boondoggle Lake Powell Pipeline for the benefit of all Utahns and to help implement a sustainable water policy for our rivers and streams. We will continue to speak on behalf of transparency, government accountability in the water sector, and to apply science and data to draft good water policy for all Utahns.   

The Utah Division of Water Resources continues to claim that Washington County needs water from the $3 billion Pipeline, but its justification for the project is based on bogus water demand projections. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Lake Powell Pipeline is slated to be released in June 2020 by the Bureau of Reclamation. If you’d like to read our complaint, visit our webpage at the address below. 

Click here to read our complaint to the Utah Attorney General

A hearty THANK YOU to everyone who is helping us fight the Lake Powell Pipeline!