Steinaker Piping Project Underway; Meeting Resistance

by | Aug 31, 2016 | News | 0 comments


After years of public process and collaboration, work began this month on a project aimed to pipe the lower 3 and a half miles of the Steinaker Service Canal. The project, consisting of installing 12- to 63-inch high-density polyethylene pipe, will make connections between existing water delivery points and should be complete sometime in December. With an estimated 1,200 acre feet of water lost every year due to evaporation and seepage, it’s not hard to understand the project’s purpose. It is not without resistance, however, as some members of the public are upset by the habitat changes that will take place along the canal as a result. Manager of the Uintah Water Conservancy District Gawain Snow says that habitat naturally does change when water is piped but that water is saved and additional habitat is created in other places. The same group of people resisting the project have also distributed their belief that the project is the first steps in eventually piping water away from the Uintah Basin to be sold to the highest bidder. This claim is absolutely false, according to Snow. “The water is not leaving the area and it will stay in the area for those that have the right to use that water,” explains Snow. “The same claims were made during the public process and it didn’t matter what we said then or now, the claims are still unfounded. We do this to keep additional water here in the valley to provide water for the community the best way we can. We hope it will be a benefit to the community and we believe it is.”

Click here to read more information from Reclamation News Release: http://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=55827

Image source: https://www.usbr.gov/uc/envdocs/ea/steinaker/ServCanal/draftEA.pdf

Image source: https://www.usbr.gov/uc/envdocs/ea/steinaker/ServCanal/draftEA.pdf

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