This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
During my legal career, I spent a lot of time working with legislators and the process to fashion laws that are meaningful and helpful. As Salt Lake County attorney, Utah attorney general and now as a private citizen, I have attended countless meetings, had innumerable personal conversations and been involved in many sessions to work out compromises on important bills.
Since moving to St. George, I've been involved in water issues in southern Utah. Water is a very big issue there since the area sits on the margin of the Mojave Desert and gets little rainfall. Recent events related to the proposed Lake Powell pipeline have me very concerned. Current tactics being used by local and state water managers to sell and finance the Lake Powell pipeline through the legislative process are troubling.
The Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP) Act of 2006 defined how the water would be financed. It requires the water users to pay for the pipeline construction and operation. It gives a relatively long period to pay for the project (from 10 to over 50 years, depending on when the water is delivered and used). Initially, construction costs were estimated to be around $187 million. Now that cost is somewhere in the range of $1 billion to $3.5 billion and growing. For a population of 150,000 people, this is a huge burden resulting, according to calculations done by a group of university economists, in a yearly payback between $61.8 million and $131 million annually. This is a staggering sum for a small community.
This year Senate Bill 80 was introduced in the Legislature to take money from the transportation budget and place it in a "restricted fund" controlled by the State Division of Water Resources. Approximately $35 million annually would go to a separate and protected fund for water use only. The bill that created the fund (Senate Bill 281 in 2015) clearly lists the Lake Powell pipeline construction as primary. Apparently the amount will grow each year until the pipeline is constructed and then used to partially pay the debt. Full responsibility for repayment still falls on Washington County. Citizens will have no opportunity to vote on accepting such a huge indebtedness. The debt could double or triple when finance costs are added.
How have water managers arranged such a debacle? First, they developed a strategy of putting together a statewide "water needs wish list," which amounts to $33 billion. Many of the listed "needs" are not state projects and are not legitimate infrastructure needs but were included and created to make a mere billion-dollar project like the pipeline look small. Next, the water districts of the state currently employ 36 lobbyists plus water district managers and staff to lobby the legislators. How much is being spent on this effort has not been disclosed, but it overwhelms the number of citizens trying to talk to legislators.
Who is paying for all these lobbyists? I'll bet it is you and me through the payment of our water bills and property taxes.
Water in Utah is important, but Utah uses more water per capita than any other state and charges less for it. We have indeed made the "desert bloom," but now it's time to join the rest of the world in conserving this precious resource and paying a fair price for its use. If our government is indeed "of the people, by the people and for the people," it's time the Legislature took notice of what's happening in the water world, put limitations in place to conserve for the future, and control the power of Utah's water managers.
The people of Washington County who will repay this huge debt are being left out. Consulting fairly with the citizens of Washington County regarding the real details of the project and the actual cost has not been done. It is not a billion dollar project, but a multi-billion dollar undertaking. Governmental entities have joined forces to support the project without meaningfully involving citizens. Citizens will ultimately pay this multi-billion dollar indebtedness and should be fully and accurately informed of the details and then given the opportunity to vote for or against it.
Isn't that what democracy is all about?
Paul Van Dam was Utah attorney general from 1989 to 1993.