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SALT LAKE CITY -- The state's Division of Water Resources is cranking up a new study on the Bear River Pipeline even though it won't be built until 2025, if then.
Gina Hirst, spokeswoman for the division, said the study work will be "just taking a preliminary look at some potential corridors for right of way," including doing some preliminary engineering work.
The project would take 220,000 acre-feet out of the Bear River for use by communities in Cache Valley and along the Wasatch Front. It was authorized by the Bear River Development Act in 1991.
The project has been much debated since then by people who worry about what taking water from the river will do to Great Salt Lake and by cities and towns concerned about where the corridor for the pipelines will go. Nothing has been built. Hirst said this study is for early preparations for when construction starts.
The study area begins in north Box Elder County at what is proposed to be the Washakie Reservoir, near Portage. It extends south to the Slaterville Diversion on the Weber River, near 17th Street and 1200 West in Ogden.
Hirst said that's only the state's part of the project. Other pipelines, through Davis County to Salt Lake County, will have to be studied and built by the entities that will use the water.
Hirst said construction of even the Washakie Reservoir has not been decided, "but they have to involve that pipeline that far north because we've got to pull the water out of the river at some point."
In 2005 the Division of Water Resources said it would cost about $300 million to build just the Washakie Reservoir. Construction would be sometime around 2045, after the pipelines are built.
Hirst said this preliminary study will look at several aspects of the project and local political leaders along the route will be notified. She said her division hasn't involved the governor's Great Salt Lake Advisory Council because it doesn't have anything solid to propose or seek recommendations on.
The Bear River Development Act of 1991 says Utah will use rights to 220,000 acre-feet of water to provide 50,000 acre-feet to the Jordan Water District, 60,000 to the Bear River Water District, 50,000 to the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District and 60,000 to Cache County.
