In Salt Lake County the water math is 2 + 2 = 5.

Water is a highly regulated natural resource.  Yet, 1 of 29 Counties in Utah, Salt Lake County is not regulated by hydrological science but political science.

The Utah Lake and Jordan River drainage over mostly Salt Lake County and Utah County.  The farm land is essentially the same with Utah County land requiring perhaps a little more water to produce the same type of crop.  Despite the effective equality in water demand for identical crops, Utah’s water cartel of which Salt Lake City is an active member have obtained a political water duty instead of hydrological water duty for all of Salt Lake County.

This means there exists an artificial call upon Utah’s water resources not support by any hydrological science.  The real duty in Salt Lake County should be 4 like Utah County’s water duty.  Instead Salt Lake County land receives 25% more water (1 acre-foot) per acre of land than Utah County.

Most everyone in the water industry knows this is not only illegal but erodes the trust and confidence in the Office of the State Engineer.

The water math is very simple.  4 acre-feet per acre means 2 acre-feet for crop evaporation and loss and 2 acre-feet for return flow for irrigation use.

In Salt Lake County the water math is 2 + 2 = 5. This is simply wrong. The ethics in water do not add up.  An extra 125,000 acre-feet call upon Utah’s water resources based on the mathematics of 2 + 2 = 5 a glaring example of a water market tilted by Utah’s premier water hoarders including Salt Lake City.

This incorrect water math could easily be correct, but Utah’s water cartel in Salt Lake County has too much power of the Division of Water rights.  Even Nevada does not have such 2 + 2 = 5 corruption in its water markets.

Q: How did Salt Lake County get the 5 acre-feet per acre duty?

A: Harold D. Donaldson, former Division of Water Rights engineer:”Not what they need, but what they wanted.  They need less than 5.” May 31, 2008.

“. . . 193 acre-feet per year.  By standard crop requirements, this would typically be sufficient for irrigation of around 65-75 acres,” Kerry Carpenter, P.E. Enforcement Engineer letter dated 21 June, 2007 to a Utah County farmer.

A Salt Lake County farmer could be granted 325 to 375 acre-feet of water to irrigate 65-75 acres.  The unfair and apparent illegal water duty is well known by many in the water community . It is simply ignored.

Utah Department of Transportation sets highway speeds according to  safety rules based on scientific principles of physics, climate, etc..  If UDOT set a speed limit of 60 mph in a particular region based on science and policy, but sets a speed limit of 80 mph in a neighboring region with identical parameters, drivers would be up in arms.

In the Utah Lake and Jordan River Drainage Basin, equal hydro-logic principles, climate, and growing conditions result in unequal water duties (water legally allowed by state water law and officials for a particular use). A farmer in Utah County, Tooele County and Davis County may apply up to 4 acre-feet of water per acre for irrigation purposes.  A farmer in Salt Lake County with the same soil and growing conditions may apply up to 5 acre-feet of water per acre for irrigation purposes.

With an estimated 125,000 of acres claimed as irrigated, this irregular water duty creates up to an extra 125,000 acre-feet artificial demand on the Utah and Salt Lake Drainage water supply.  To put this in perspective, that is equal to about 40% of Jordanelle Reservoir which was built with money lent from the Federal Government on the representation that spending about $3,500 to capture and store 1 acre-foot of water was desirable and feasible. Utah water officials spent about $437,500,000.00 to capture and store 125,000 acre-feet of water in Jordanelle.

The question is: Given the increased pressures on Utah’s water resources, how can we continue to allow an un-equal, unfair, and irregular water duty to impair Utah’s water resources and markets?  Because Utah Lake and wells in Utah County are directly connected, an unfair and irregular water duty directly impacts public supply wells in Utah County.

Equal soil & climate & growing conditions must mean equal water duties.  Irregular and unfair water duties erode the public trust in the Office of the State Engineer.

All water owned by the state is limited by the doctrine of Beneficial Use as found in the Utah Code 73-1-3: “Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit to the use of water in this state.”  This being the case, can a farmer in Salt Lake County really own 1 extra acre-foot of water which based on hydrology runs to waste?  Of course, not.

Upon science does a state water administer rely to grant 25% more water to a Salt Lake County farmer over a farmer in Utah County?  No authority exists in the Utah Code.  No authority exists by court decree.  Where does this authority exist?

Another issue facing particularly farmers is one of conservation.  If a farmer installs a sprinkler system and water more efficiently so as to save 50% allotment over his prior flood irrigation method, over time he may loose 50% of his water right.  So the farmer who conserves may devalue his property.  This makes no sense and encourages wasting water to maintain maximum water rights.

“Duty of Water. - The total volume of irrigation required to mature a particular type of crop. It includes that portion of consumptive use not satisfied by precipitation, evaporation and seepage from ditches and canals and the water eventually returned to streams by percolation and surface runoff.”  Consumptive Use of Irrigated Crops in Utah Research Report 145 Project No. 796 Doctor Robert W Hill 1998 Reprint Page 51.