AREA 55 - NORTHERN UTAH VALLEY and PROVO RIVER

Updated: November 26, 2014

  MANAGEMENT

Three Proposed Determination of Water Rights books have been published: the Round Valley subdivision in 1984, and the American Fork River and Pleasant Grove subdivisions in 1990. No pre-trial orders or interlocutory decrees have been issued. There are several other decrees in this area, most notably the 1921 Provo River Decree. Decrees and agreements have also been issued concerning water levels in Utah Lake. There is one state-administered distribution system in this area. The Provo River Distribution System is administered by the Provo River Commissioner. This area is subject to the conditions of the Utah Lake Water Distribution Plan, the Deer Creek Reservoir/Jordanelle Reservoir Operating Agreement, the Cedar Valley and Northern Utah Valley Groundwater Management Plan, and the Heber Valley Subarea Policy. Click here to see statistics for this area.

  SOURCES

Surface and Ground Water - All supplies of water are fully appropriated. Non-consumptive use applications will be considered on their individual merits. Changes from surface to underground sources, and vice versa, are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with the groundwater management plans below, with emphasis on their potential to interfere with existing rights and to ensure that there is no enlargement of the underlying rights. Fixed-time and temporary projects, especially those involving surface waters, must be handled by temporary change applications. Changes based on shares of stock in irrigation companies and exchanges based on contracts with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District have been approved to authorize development in this closed area. Applicants are placed on notice that dry years may bring about a reduction of artesian pressure, therefore, well construction should accommodate the installation of submersible pumps. Applicants are placed on notice that development should be pursued as soon as possible, and requests for extensions of time in which to file proof will be critically reviewed after an initial five year period.

Heber Valley - Applications which seek to change the use of water to a domestic purpose, where the effluent goes to the Heber Valley Waste Water Treatment Plant, will have that domestic use calculated as being 100% depletive for quantification purposes.

  GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT PLANS

  • Upper Provo River Groundwater Policy (1995).
    The valleys of the upper Provo River are experiencing a change in land use practices. These valleys are changing from a largely agricultural use to urban and residential uses. Recent studies by the USGS have indicated a very strong inter-relationship between ground-water and surface sources. This inter-relationship means that water use in the upper Provo River Valleys has an effect upon the water supplies downstream. The plan is effective as of November 15, 1995.

  • Cedar Valley and Northern Utah Valley Groundwater Management Plan (April 8, 2014)
    The objectives of this plan are to ensure groundwater withdrawals do not exceed safe yield, to safeguard the integrity of the aquifer, and to protect water quality in northern Utah and Cedar Valleys. The intent of this plan is to provide specific management guidelines for northern Utah and Cedar Valleys under Section 73-5-15 of the Utah Code. This plan amends the northern Utah Valley portion of the Utah/Goshen Valley Ground-water Management Plan.

    •   GROUNDWATER CHANGE APPLICATIONS

    As a part of the groundwater management plan adopted on April 8, 2014, the State Engineer adopted several appropriation policy guidelines for the area. Some of those guidelines pertain to groundwater change applications:

    • All change or exchange applications that represent a new groundwater withdrawal from Area 54 East or the portion of Area 55 within the groundwater management plan area that were filed after September 30, 2010 will not be approved.
    • Change applications proposing to move groundwater rights anywhere within a given water right area within the management plan boundary, including applications that propose to move water rights from area 54 East to 54 West, will be reviewed on their individual merits and may be approved.
    • Change applications proposing to move underground points of diversion from Water Right Area 54 to Area 55, or Area 55 to Area 54, will not be approved except under the following conditions: (a) The underground point of diversion to be changed is an approved location as of June 4, 2013 within the Central Zone..., and; (b) The proposed hereafter point of diversion remains within the Central Zone. (The Central Zone was defined in the plan as a one-mile buffer on either side of the administrative boundary between Areas 54 and 55.)
    To assess if a proposed change application is within the guidelines, an online evaluation tool is available.

      GENERAL

    Applications in Wasatch County are advertised in the Wasatch Wave. In Utah County, applications are advertised in the Provo Daily Herald. The general irrigation diversion duty, which the State Engineer uses for evaluation purposes, is 4.0 acre-feet per acre per year (af/ac) in Utah County and 3.0 af/ac in Wasatch County (except Round Valley where the duty is 4.0 af/ac). The consumptive use requirement is determined from the publication Consumptive Use of Irrigated Crops in Utah, Research Report 145, Utah State University, 1994, unless the applicant submits other data for consideration. This area is administered by the Utah Lake-Jordan River Regional Office in Salt Lake City.

    Other requirements

    The Water Right applicant is strongly cautioned that other permits may be required before any physical development of a project can begin and it is the responsibility of the applicant to determine the applicability of and acquisition of such permits. In order to avoid delays and ensure that Water Right approvals conform to applicable local ordinances, applicants should contact local governmental entities in advance to determine what ordinances are in place that affect the proposed project and to make sure that Water Right filings conform to those ordinances. The approval of a Water Right application does not imply any approval of a project by any other governmental entity. Approval of the project proposed in the Water Right application should be obtained from local governmental entities as necessary to implement a project.

      REFERENCES

    Technical Publication No. 11, Ground Water in Northern Utah Valley, Utah: A Progress Report for the Period 1948-63; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1965.

    Technical Publication No. 27, Water Resources of the Heber-Kamas-Park City Area, North-Central Utah; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1970.

    Technical Publication No. 46, Water-Quality Reconnaissance of Surface Inflow to Utah Lake, Utah; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1974.

    Technical Publication No. 80, Ground-water Resources of Northern Utah Valley, Utah; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1985.

    Technical Publication No. 101, Hydrology of Heber and Round Valleys, Wasatch County, Utah, with Emphasis on Simulation of Ground-water Flow in Heber Valley; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1991.

    Technical Publication No. 104, Seepage Study of the Timpanogos, Wasatch, Sagebrush and Spring Creek, Upper Charleston, and Lower Charleston Canals, Wasatch County, Utah; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1992.

    Basic-Data Report No. 2, Records of Selected Wells and Springs, Selected Drillers'Logs of Wells, and Chemical Analyses of Ground and Surface Waters, Northern Utah Valley, Utah; Utah State Engineer; 1962.

    Basic-Data Report No. 39, Selected Hydrologic Data for Northern Utah Valley, Utah, 1935-1982; Utah Department of Natural Resources; 1982.

    Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5049, Three-Dimensional Numerical Model of Ground-Water Flow in Northern Utah Valley, Utah County, Utah; U.S. Geological Survey; 2009.

    Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5197, Hydrology of Northern Utah Valley, Utah County, Utah, 1975-2005; U.S. Geological Survey; 2009.

      MODELING

    Regional Ground-Water Flow, Carbonate-Rock Province, Nevada, Utah, and Adjacent States; USGS Open-File Reports 93-170 and 93-420; 1993.

    Northern Utah Valley Ground-water Flow Model, 1985.

    Three-Dimensional Numberical Model of Ground-Water Flow in Northern Utah Valley, Utah County, Utah, 2008

    Heber Valley Ground-water Flow Model, 1991.

      PREVIOUS PAGE UPDATES

    April 11, 2011, April 14, 2014
    Policy area in green,
    click on the map for more detail

      DESCRIPTION

    This area, reaching from T1S to T6S, includes the watersheds of Dry Creek, American Fork River, Provo River, and Rock Canyon Creek in northeastern Utah County, and Center Creek, Lake Creek, Daniels Creek, Main Creek, and Provo River in northwestern Wasatch County. All of these streams eventually contribute to Utah Lake, the northeast portion of which lies in this area. The area is bordered on the north by the Salt Lake Valley, on the west by Utah Lake and the Jordan River, and on the east by the Duchesne River drainage, and on the south by the Hobble Creek drainage. The highest point in the area is 11,750 foot Mt. Timpanogos, while the lowest is the surface of Utah Lake at about 4,490 feet, giving a total relief of about 7,260 feet.