State water plan manager asks Cedar‑Beaver council for local input, outlines timeline to Dec. 2026

Stephanie McGinnis, the new state water plan manager at the Utah Division of Water Resources, told the Cedar‑Beaver Watershed Council that state law now requires the statewide plan be updated at least every 10 years and that the division hopes to update it more frequently.

"The state water plan must be updated no less frequently than every 10," McGinnis said, adding that the division’s internal goal is to update the plan about every five years.

The state water plan guides decision‑making for communities, agriculture and ecosystems across Utah and can influence legislation and funding priorities. McGinnis told council members she wants basin‑level input to shape the plan’s chapter on local basins and asked council members to complete a short survey, join a small subcommittee to synthesize responses, and help publicize and host a single public scoping meeting for the basin this summer or early fall.

McGinnis described recent statutory changes that name state agencies and local entities — including watershed councils and water conservancy districts — as collaborators in plan development. She said the division plans to produce a concise state plan (her team is targeting roughly 50 pages) and to publish the final plan by December 2026. The division expects to circulate a first complete draft in December or January and aims to hold public scoping meetings in each basin in July–September so public input can be incorporated before authorship proceeds.

At the council meeting, McGinnis outlined three specific requests for council members: take a brief online survey that will be emailed to council members; identify two to four people willing to serve on a short subcommittee to condense survey responses into themes; and help the division host and publicize one basin public scoping meeting. She said the survey will ask respondents to identify themselves as council members or not, and that the division will use that information to prioritize responses from council members in the basin‑level chapter.

McGinnis explained how the plan will be structured: early chapters will lay out constraints such as hydrology, laws and compacts, while later chapters will present options to support "vibrant communities, productive agriculture and healthy watershed ecosystems." She singled out a new Chapter 8 as the place to summarize basin‑specific challenges, needs and local successes and said the division prefers council members to provide brief bullet points and local detail rather than a fully written section.

Brandon Yorkley, Commissioner for Beaver County and chairman of the Cedar Beaver Watershed Council, urged that legislators receive accurate local input and warned that ad‑hoc legislative proposals can sometimes run counter to local priorities. "Legislators are really good to get local input, but we have a few wild cards up there," Yorkley said.

McGinnis also pointed council members toward the Unified Water Infrastructure plan process for submitting discrete infrastructure projects. She noted the recent May 9 deadline for that program had passed and explained that while the state water plan will highlight topics and themes, specific capital projects should be submitted through the infrastructure plan for ranking and funding consideration.

On timing, McGinnis said she will meet with every watershed council by June, circulate the survey by email (she planned to send it the day after the meeting and provide about a week to 10 days for responses), and asked that the basin subcommittee meet within four to five weeks so the division can synthesize input. She emphasized the division's tight timeline: public scoping meetings in July–September, drafting over the following year, and publication targeted for December 2026.

Council members offered practical assistance: one attendee offered a local venue for the scoping meeting, and others discussed ways to help share the survey. McGinnis said the division will also work with its communications staff to issue announcements and public service messages but asked council members to use targeted outreach rather than broad social posts to keep the initial basin input focused.

The council did not adopt new policy or make a formal decision on the plan at the meeting; McGinnis’s presentation was a request for participation and outreach. McGinnis invited council members willing to serve on the subcommittee to contact her and Becca Free of the Division of Water Resources once they receive the survey.

McGinnis closed by reiterating the statutory deadline and the division’s request for council input and help with outreach. "We want your help identifying the challenges and the needs," she said.