A state representative pushing to bring nuclear energy to Utah has applied to the state to take billions of gallons of water from the Green River to supply reactors that could produce electricity for 3 million households.
Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District, has filed an application with the Utah Division of Water Rights to transfer 29,600 acre-feet of water to Emery County.
The water would be used for two proposed nuclear reactors for the Transition Power LLC Blue Castle Project on private land west of the city of Green River, said company CEO Aaron Tilton, a former lawmaker from Springville.
Transition Power owns the assets, Tilton said, but Energy Path of North Carolina and former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils Diaz are equity owners.
Noel's water district and Transition Power signed a contract in September 2007 that would transfer the water rights in exchange for payments starting at $100,000 per year and growing to $1 million by the time the plant would come on line.
The water originally was to serve the proposed Kaiparowits coal-fired power plant that was abandoned when President Bill Clinton in 1996 designated Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Boyd Clayton, Utah's deputy state engineer, said a 20-day protest period on the proposal would start in about three weeks. State Engineer Kent Jones will schedule hearings in Emery County. Clayton said the hearings could be months away.
Critics say even though the water right originally was for a coal-fired plant, it may not be easy to transfer it to a nuclear plant whose customers would include more Californians than Utah residents.
Noel said the hearings would not focus on the project itself, but rather on any effects on downstream users in Utah. He denied Blue Castle would sell most of its power out of state, saying nuclear power could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah director Christopher Thomas said his group, which opposes nuclear power and nuclear waste coming to the state, may protest the water transfer.
The organization already has protested extending the water right, due to expire in 2011. "It's kind of unclear which [application] should have come first," Thomas said.
The Kane County Water Conservancy District has applied to the Utah Division of Water Rights to transfer 29,600 acre-feet of water to Emery County for a proposed nuclear power project.
An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water or serve one or two households for a year.
The water would be diverted from the Green River to serve the Blue Castle Power Project, which plans to generate enough electricity for as many as 3 million households.
The public will be allowed a 20-day protest period, beginning in about three weeks.
The public can follow the application by going to www.waterrights.utah.gov and searching for application a35402 on water right 89-74.
The Utah Division of Water Rights will hold hearings in Emery County, but the hearings could be months away.
