THE MIRACLE THAT IS YOUR WATER

It is important to understand where your water comes from.  We need to understand the great lengths it took to get this water to us.  Most people don't understand that the water that they are putting on their grass, and even drinking, has traveled roughly 65 miles through ditches, canals, culverts, aqueducts, and laterals to get to you.  Most of us take this water for granted.  Many people visiting this area are surprised by the large lawns, gardens, and other water intensive landscaping that we enjoy.  We visit other arid states like Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona for example, and notice that they do not have the same water intensive landscapes.  These states mainly have xeriscaped landscapes.  Nevada is the only state in the United States that receives less water annually than Utah. How is it possible that such an arid climate can sustain these landscapes?  The answer, of course, is snow, and the ability we have to capture and store snow run off.  

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The current drought that we are experiencing is nothing new for this area.  The Weber River Basin has always had times of plenty, and times of scarcity.  The Weber River Basin is the geographic area that collects the rain and snow fall that provides some of the drinking water, and almost all of the irrigation water that we use.  Early settlers, mainly Latter Day Saints, who moved into the Weber River Basin area during the mid 1800's, recorded only receiving an average of 18 inches of precipitation per year.  They to, had to develop canals, ditches, and small reservoirs in order to transport and store water for use during dry times of the year.

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In the early 1900's, very wise men began to conceptualize and design the Weber Basin Project.  In 1952, funding for the project was secured from the federal government.  The size and scope of the Weber Basin Project was immense.  The project was divided into three phases.  In phase one, a tunnel that is 3.3 miles long was cut into a mountainside in order to convey water from the Weber River diversion south to the Davis County area.  Aqueducts were built of 80" concrete pipe that ran from the Weber River all the way to North Salt Lake, roughly 20 miles away.  Other diversions, pumping stations, and canal systems were also built during phase one, but the most difficult project was the construction of Rockport Reservoir. 

 

There was a lot of controversy over Rockport Reservoir.  Many farmers had to sell fertile lands or have it condemned in order for the dam to be constructed.  There were many protests at this time, and studies were conducted to find a different spot for the dam.  To the farmer's and other landowner's chagrin, the original spot was proved to be the best.  Once construction finally began, the contractor awarded the project ran into construction difficulties, such as massive boulders.  Notwithstanding all of the difficulties involved, Rockport was completed in 1956.  Rockport Reservoir can hold 60,860 acre feet, and is very important to our being able to have irrigation water during the summer.  Rockport stores snow melt that flows from the Uintahs in the spring, and stores it until we need it during the dry months.  If we did not have Rockport Reservoir, much of the snow melt we receive would flow right down into the Great Salt Lake. 

 

Pineview reservoir existed at this time, but was much smaller.  Part of phase one included increasing Pineview's capacity.  Pineview's capacity increased from 44,200 acre feet to 110,149 acre-feet.  Pineview is not part of the system that feeds the Davis County area, however.