In 2005, I attended a meeting at Dixie State College in St. George at which Ron Thompson, general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District, said there was enough water to support a population of 260,000 people. He said the Lake Powell pipeline would cost $560,000 and could support an additional 500,000 people for a total population of 760,000.
News reports show how wrong he was and how poorly managed this project has been. For the state to spend $33 million over the past 10 years for an incomplete report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shows gross mismanagement. We also learned that FERC accepted the incomplete report, the details of which are less disclosed to the public rather than letting the BLM take it over.
The biggest failure of the state’s report was in failing to accurately estimate the cost and who will pay for the pipeline. The state’s cost estimate of $1.4 billion is modest and more likely $3 billion or more. Most likely going up will be the cost of water plus city taxes to pay for infrastructure for the increase in population. It’s time at the state and water district for new management who are held accountable.
Bob Routsong, St. George