The funding will pay for 75 percent of the rebuilding effort in this hardscrabble area that receives less than 5 inches of precipitation annually.
State lawmakers are considering picking up an additional 20 percent of the tab, while the remaining costs will be paid by this agricultural community about 180 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Hanksville is home to 250 people and four times that many cattle.
"It's fabulous about the money," said Tracy Albrecht, whose husband, Ronnie, is the fifth generation to work on the family farm. "But we've got to have the water in the next few weeks, so we'll have to work on some kind of a temporary solution."
The Albrechts faced losing their farm after a once-in-200-years storm hit the town on Oct. 6, destroying the century-old diversion dam. Also lost was 2,700 feet of canal, 16,000 feet of fences and 930 acres of alfalfa. Ranchers got some relief when they sent their cattle to winter ranges, but in March there will be no irrigation water for the returning cattle or for spring planting.
Ronnie Albrecht, who is president of the Hanksville Canal Co., said he has been trying to get permission from the Bureau of Land Management to pipe water upstream from the dam into the irrigation ditch. But even if gets the necessary permit, he knows that the process will be time-consuming.
"There's only one ditch," he said. "If I can get the water, it'll be available to everyone else, too."
If this doesn't work and there is not an early rain, cattle will have to be sent early to market and crops will not be planted.
Prospects looked much worse late last year for getting any help from the state or federal government. Hanksville and neighboring Caineville didn't qualify for emergency disaster funds because the flooding hadn't impacted all of Wayne County.
The only available avenue was the federal Conservation Resource Service's watershed protection program, but those prospects did not look too bright because federal officials said the town was in line behind other emergency projects worth $60 million. In another quirky, bureaucratic twist, any work on the diversion dam would be ineligible for reimbursement if the project ended up being approved.
"The town will die without irrigation water," said Hanksville Mayor Stanley Alvey. "The diversion dam is that important."
The application process may have gotten a boost from U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, ranking member of an appropriations agriculture committee. He had made a personal plea for the money, according to a spokeswoman, because "he knows what the dam means to Hanksville."
The first help came earlier this month to protect the town from floods that have swept over homes and buildings three times in the past four years. The Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board suspended its rules to immediately release a $260,000 grant to replace an inadequate bridge that crosses Bull Creek with a new box culvert. Grant money also was used to dredge 3,500 feet of the creek to increase channel capacity.
"Right now, there's not enough carrying capacity to move the water," said the board's Keith Burnett. "What this project will do is get all the water into the channel so it won't flood the town."
Work on the diversion dam will take much longer.
An assessment report is expected to be completed by the end of March, and construction designs could be submitted by April or May, said Ron Davidson, assistant state conservationist with the conservation service. It is hoped that the diversion dam might be completed by next spring.
For their part, the Albrechts will ride out what could be a dry season. Ronnie Albrecht works in a road crew for the Utah Department of Transportation, and his wife has a job at the U.S. Post Office in Hanksville to supplement their farm income.
Perhaps there will be enough rain for a first cutting of their alfalfa crop. What hay they had stored before the flood was too moldy to sell, feed their cattle or help make payments on their farm.
"We'll do everything we can to get water," said Ronnie Albrecht. "No matter what, we're staying."
dawn@sltrib.com
