HEIDI TOTH - Daily Herald | Posted: Monday, October 2, 2006 11:00 pm
With a dozen old keys, six documents and 31 signatures, 42 miles of pipes and hundreds of cubic feet of water storage changed hands Monday.
The title transfer, made official at a ceremony in the Provo area office of the Bureau of Reclamation, gave ownership of the Salt Lake Aqueduct, a 41.7-mile pipeline that transports water from Deer Creek Reservoir, to the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy.
The arrangement also included a $170,000 payment to the government. The money is the final payment on a debt the district has been repaying since the aqueduct was built.
The district now owns the property it has been operating and maintaining for 50 years. It means more responsibility, district general manager Mike Wilson said; three days after the plans for the ceremony were finalized an engineer called him about a leak in the aqueduct. But it's a welcome milestone nonetheless, both for him and his Provo counterpart. The Provo River Water Users Association is hoping to get ownership of the Provo Reservoir Canal sometime next year through the same process, paving the way for covering the canal.
Ownership means the district can now make repairs and renovations as needed to the aqueduct, which includes six tunnels and two concrete terminal reservoirs. The aqueduct doesn't need any major repairs; but when the time comes, Wilson will be able to go after financing without the federal government's involvement, which will save time and money.
"It's tough to get financing to do a major replacement project like that when you don't have the title to the facility, to the real estate that's involved," said Mary Cook, the regional realty officer for the Upper Colorado Region of the Bureau of Reclamation.
This transfer comes two years after Congress passed a bill allowing such title transfers; U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, sponsored the House bill and U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, sponsored the Senate bill. Cannon joined Wilson, Provo River Water Users Association General Manager Keith Denos, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Rick Gold and Acting Commissioner Bill Rinne at the head table to sign the quitclaim deeds and grants of easement.
"This is one of those places where I think it makes a lot of sense," Rinne said of the transfer.
For Denos, the title transfer meant more than just additional opportunities for his partner; it offered incentive and hope that next year, he'll be in Wilson's seat. The Provo association is trying to get the title to the 21.5-mile Provo Reservoir Canal that starts in Provo Canyon and runs down through the north end of Utah County. Having the title will enable the association to enclose the canal to prevent drownings, stop evaporation and seepage, protect water quality and allow for a recreational trail on top of it.
"That tragic thing has happened too many times," he said of deaths in the canal; the water is fast-moving, cold and has two inverted siphons, all of which can be lethal to someone who falls in.
Once the association owns the title, it can bond for the money to cover the canal at much lower rates than if the federal government owned the land, and cut through the bureaucracy at a quicker rate.
The repayments for Provo's association will be higher; Denos said the repayments specific to the canal are estimated to be about $750,000.
"It'll have to come from assessments from our shareholders," he said, adding the shareholders are aware of the additional cost and believe the benefits outweigh the costs.
Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2543 or htoth@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.