State opens Spanish Fork–Mapleton water‑rights adjudication; notice to file claims set for July 10

Assistant State Engineer Chase McDonald said the Division of Water Rights is proceeding with a general adjudication for the Spanish Fork–Mapleton subdivision (Area 51, Book 8) as part of the larger Utah Lake–Jordan River adjudication. He told attendees the division will mail a notice to file claims on July 10 and that the notice will start a 90‑day window to file water‑user claims; a help session is scheduled for July 16 (Spanish Fork Library), and staff will continue outreach and public meetings through later phases of the adjudication.

The adjudication is a court action to bring existing water uses onto the permanent record and to quantify rights. McDonald said the division sent summonses to water‑right owners on its records and to property owners inside the subdivision boundary to ensure the process is comprehensive. "The vast majority of people who received the summons in this case do not have a water right," he said, but emphasized that anyone who believes they have a water right must file a claim.

Why it matters: a general adjudication joins and binds water users and yields a proposed determination the state engineer files with the court; the court then considers objections and may issue decrees. McDonald told the public the division has about 700 water rights on record in the boundary and mailed just under 18,000 notices to landowners to reach possible pre‑statutory claimants and successors in interest.

Process highlights provided at the meeting include: the July 10 notice to file claims; a 90‑day claim filing period with the possibility of a single 30‑day extension if requested in writing during that 90‑day window; public help sessions to assist claimants; a later phase to compile unclaimed rights (list of unclaimed rights and a 90‑day objection period); and a final phase to investigate claims, assemble the state engineer’s recommendations into a proposed determination, and submit that proposed determination to the court.

McDonald said the division will send prefilled water‑user claims to owners of record and blank claim forms to property owners who are not on the division’s records. He urged people to read any prefilled form before signing: "Once you sign that, even though we send it to you, once you sign it, you're asserting that that is your claim." He added that claimants may cross out or correct information on a prefilled form before filing.

The division will accept claims filed directly with the Office of the State Engineer or with the district court; most people find it easiest to file with the division, which will submit the claim to the court on the claimant’s behalf. McDonald described filing options — mail, email to waterrights_adjudication@utah.gov, hand delivery to any Division of Water Rights office (closest Salt Lake City), or in‑person help sessions where staff will print and accept signed claims and take a copy as the filed date.

Less‑critical details: the division will publish slides, scanned file documents, and mapping on its website (waterrights.utah.gov) and will hold additional public meetings as the process reaches later steps (list of unclaimed rights, proposed determination).