The title transfer is something of a formality. Metro has operated the underground pipeline - which provides municipal and industrial water to a significant portion of the Wasatch Front - for the past 50 years.

But the ownership change also provides an easement to Metro and the Provo River Water Users Association over the area where the water is diverted into a pipeline below Deer Creek Dam.

The process to shift the aqueduct from federal to local control has been ongoing for several years.

Rep. Chris Cannon and Sen. Bob Bennett each sponsored bills that led to the "Provo River Transfer Act" that President Bush signed a little more than two years ago.

"This title transfer is a model of how title transfers should be done and an example of cooperative conservation at its best," said William Rinne, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in a statement.

The Bureau of Reclamation also plans to transfer later on ownership of the 21.5-mile Provo Reservoir Canal in Utah County to the Provo River Water Users Association, BLM officials said.

-The Salt Lake Tribune