Another $36 million earmarked for Utah was also inserted by Bennett into the Interior Department's 2005 appropriation that passed a committee vote Tuesday.
If the provisions survive in the final agriculture spending bill, about half the money will be spent on grants to Utah ranchers and farmers to undertake drought-relief, water conservation and habitat improvement measures. Most of the rest will go to Utah State University, which will receive $16.3 million for research on subjects including reducing poisonous plants that threaten livestock, cultivating drought-tolerant grass, increasing bee pollen and preserving open space.
"Despite limited funding, I am pleased with the amount of assistance this bill provides Utah's agriculture community," said Bennett, who heads the Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Interior measure now headed to the full Senate includes $5 million toward the new Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah, $3.2 million for restoring sage grouse habitat, $1.8 million for purchasing new segments of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and $560,000 to erect a new collection facility at the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Price.
Meanwhile, the Senate Energy Committee Wednesday passed two Utah project bills sponsored by Bennett. The first directs the Secretary of Interior to accept a 5-acre donation of land in Vernal to build a new centralized research and storage facility for the thousands of fossils and American Indian artifacts held in various locations by Dinosaur National Monument. The legislation does not allocate funding for the new Uintah Research and Curatorial Center, but it authorizes the future appropriation of "such sums as are necessary" to construct the new home for the vast collection.
The second Bennett measure cleared by the Energy committee Wednesday directs the Bureau of Reclamation to turn over all federal ownership interest in the 41-mile-long, 69-inch-diameter water pipe known as the Salt Lake Aqueduct to the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy, plus convey federal interest in the 21-mile-long Provo reservoir canal to the Provo River Water Users Association.
The federal government built both the projects more than 50 years ago to supply drinking and irrigation water to the Wasatch Front. Now, both facilities need critical repairs and safety improvements, including plans to enclose the Provo River canal and build a public trail along the top. Bennett has told Congress that once the federal government surrenders its ownership to the nonprofit groups, they will be eligible for low-interest loans to finance the needed improvements.
