Land Management and Water Yield

The federal government, primarily the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, administers about two-thirds of the land area in the state of Utah. More significantly, they own and manage the headwaters of almost all the watersheds from which the state's surface water supply is derived and the state's population is dependent. Utah is concerned about the ability of these lands to yield a high quality, nondeclining supply of water to its communities for agricultural, M&I and other uses.

Since the 1920s, federal agencies have been very successful in suppressing natural fire. Consequently, there has been a buildup in standing vegetation (biomass) on these lands. This well documented phenomenon may be reducing overland flow of runoff and increasing losses to evapotranspiration, which will ultimately reduce water yields from historical levels. Additionally, this buildup of biomass will also increase the probability of catastrophic fire, which can result in serious flash flood flows. Such flows can carry huge loads of sediment and debris into streams and rivers, as well as water storage and distribution features, seriously disrupting natural and man-made water systems. Federal agencies should practice responsible watershed management that will help ensure a continued high quality, nondeclining supply of water to meet the state's increasing needs.

Reserved Water Rights

Among the unknowns that could affect Utah's water future is the quantification of federal reserved water rights. These rights are associated with federal land reservations including Indian reservations, national parks and monuments, and national forests. While some reserved water right claims have been settled in the state, most have not. Many remain unsettled because of questions related to quantification methodology, a lack of funding, and potential conflicts with existing water rights. Additionally, the federal government is not required to identify and quantify its reserved water rights until a general water rights adjudication is done for the river basin in which the claims are located.

The Winters doctrine, Winters vs. United States (207 U.S. 564 [1908]), and subsequent cases, form the basis for defining federal reserved water rights on Indian and other federal reservations. It states that when the federal government reserves land from the public domain, water rights are implicitly reserved of sufficient quantity to meet the primary purposes for which the reservation was established. Generally, quantifying a federal reserved right requires specifying: (1) the amount of water claimed, (2) the water sources, (3) the primary purposes of the reservation for which the water is needed (in the case of Indian reservations, the practicably irrigable acreage), and (4) the priority date of the claim.¹²

As of early 2001, the only Indian reserved water right claim in Utah that has been completely settled is that of the ShivwitsBand of the Paiute Indians in Washington County. Under the settlement agreement, the Shivwits Band will receive 4,000 acre-feet of water per year. Half of this will be delivered by the existing Santa Clara Project; the other half will be provided by the future St. George Reuse Project (1,900 acre-feet) and increased production of wells on the reservation (100 acre-feet).

Claims of the Northern Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Duchesne, Uintah and Grand counties are also on the table. Although Congress has passed a final compact agreement, the Northern Ute Indian Tribe and the state of Utah have yet to ratify the compact. The claims of the Navajo Indian Tribe in southern San Juan County will also likely be brought to the table in the future.

Other recent discussions of reserved rights in Utah involved non-Indian rights for national parks and monuments. These claims are usually for instream flows and non-consumptive resource protection, and generally do not involve large amounts of water. Recently, the reserved water rights claim for Zion National Park was successfully negotiated by local water officials, the state and federal agencies. Other possible non-Indian claims for water may be for some wilderness areas, wildlife refuges and national forests, although the extent of such claims has not been resolved. The concern with these types of claims is the effect they will have on existing water users and future water development, since the priority date of the reserved water rights is the date that the reservation was created and generally precedes many established water rights.

Utah's current position regarding the interplay between federal and state water rights is one of negotiation rather than litigation.¹³ It is the state's hope that this approach to negotiation will continue to bear fruit. A spirit of cooperation will help solve the difficulties that will arise in trying to settle these claims.

	Many battles have been raged over the Colorado River, giving credence to the saying that is common in the West: "Water is more valuable than gold." (Photo of sandstone reflection on water courtesy of Tom Till.)

Colorado River

Beginning with the 1922 Colorado River Compact, there have been several actions that have allocated the waters of the Colorado River. Collectively these are known as the "Law of the River." Accordingly, Utah's allocation is approximately 1.73 million acre-feet per year. In view of the fact that these actions were negotiated during a period of above normal precipitation, a more realistic analysis leaves Utah's share at about 1.37 million acre-feet per year.

Current depletions to Utah's Colorado River allocation add up to about 950,000 acre-feet per year. Much of this is diverted from tributaries to the Colorado River. The biggest users are agricultural interests in the Uintah Basin and Carbon, Emery and Wayne counties. Water is also exported to the Wasatch Front by the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project; two of Utah's first large-scale water projects, the Provo River and Strawberry projects; and several other smaller diversions.

Utah has an estimated 420,000 acre-feet per year of its Colorado River water that it can yet use. Projections are that annual demand will continue to increase such that about 194,000 acre-feet could remain unused in 2020 and about 43,000 acre-feet would remain unused in 2050. Steady increases in M&I uses, settlements of reserved water right claims, along with a handful of small agricultural irrigation projects, will contribute to this reduction.

RELATED LINKS
	Water Quality Initiatives/Strategies • EPA's TMDL Program • NRCS - Animal Feeding Operations State Agencies • Department of Environmental Quality • Division of Drinking Water • Division of Water Quality (DWQ) • DWQ - Watershed/TMDL		Environmental Resources • Utah Wilderness Inventory • Department of Natural Resources • Great Salt Lake Comprehensive Management Plan • Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) • DWR - Utah Wetlands Education Program • Utah Conservation Data Center • Utah Wetlands and Riparian Center