Proposed river authority would assert Utahâs claims to the Coloradoâs dwindling water
A bill would allow the new agency â which environmentalists call âshadowyâ â to close its meetings and keep its records confidential.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) Utah legislative leaders on Thursday unveiled plans for a new $9 million state agency to advance Utahâs claims to the Colorado River in hopes of wrangling more of the riverâs water. Environmentalists characterized the proposed river commission as a âshadowy new government agencyâ aimed at promoting the Lake Powell pipeline and other big water diversions. Lake Powell is shown in 2016.
/ A view of a field near the proposed site for the Cove Reservoir in Kane County.
Seven environmental groups are calling for an investigation into the proposed Cove Reservoir in Kane County. The project’s planners say it will dam the East Fork of the Virgin River for agricultural use in Kane and Washington Counties.
But environmental groups claim that’s misleading. Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said in surveying the land, his group found the water will be used in a developing, municipal area.
“What’s in this agricultural area are a number of subdivisions, that s not an agricultural purpose,” Frankel said in a press conference Tuesday. “It s not OK to pretend like this is [for] agriculture when it is not.”
| Updated: 4:01 p.m.
A coalition of environmental groups is calling for an investigation into the proposed Cove Reservoir, alleging the southern Utah project’s environmental review brazenly mischaracterized the dam’s purpose to win federal subsidies intended to support rural communities and agriculture.
Designed to impound 6,000 acre-feet of water on the Virgin River’s East Fork, this reservoir proposed by the Kane County Water Conservancy District is supposed to irrigate nearly 5,000 acres of alfalfa far downstream in St. George. The group’s analysis of the lands to be irrigated, however, found most of this land is or will soon be blanketed in asphalt, subdivisions, churches and a school.
Utahâs Cove Reservoir was proposed under false pretenses to win federal subsidy, critics allege
Supporters say the water is needed for farming, but could eventually be used for other purposes.
(Courtesy photo by Utah Rivers Council) This land slated for a future subdivision in St. George is among the supposed alfalfa fields to be irrigated by water from the proposed Cove Reservoir far upstream on the Virgin River in Kane County. Project critics contend the dam proponents have deliberately mischaracterized the reservoirâs purpose to win huge federal subsidies intended to support agriculture.
  | Jan. 7, 2021, 4:19 p.m.
The stated purpose of a $30 million reservoir proposed by the Kane County Water Conservancy District is to provide water for alfalfa growers, mostly in neighboring Washington County downstream on the Virgin River. Because it would support Utah agriculture, the Cove Reservoir would enjoy a generous federal subsidy with U.S. taxpayers shouldering 75% o