State water plan manager asks watershed council for basin input as update proceeds toward Dec. 2026 deadline

Stephanie, the new state water plan manager at the Division of Water Resources, asked members of the Utah Watershed Council on a recent meeting to help shape the State Water Plan update by contributing basin-level comments, identifying local projects and participating in summer scoping meetings.

"I just joined the division of water resources in January, as the new state water plan manager, And I'm really excited to be here with you all," Stephanie said, and outlined a timeline that calls for a publicly reviewable draft this winter and a publication-ready plan by December 2026.

The update matters because state staff and several council members said the plan will inform legislators and funding decisions. Stephanie told the council that state code requires periodic updates to the State Water Plan and that the division’s internal goal is to produce an update every five years while meeting the statutory cycle.

Stephanie described the plan’s proposed structure and schedule: short, high-level chapters (a target of about 50 pages), topical sections on vibrant communities, productive agriculture, and healthy watersheds and ecosystems, plus a basin-perspective chapter the division asked watershed councils to help develop. She said the division will (1) circulate a five-page outline and a short survey to collect comments, (2) hold public scoping meetings in each basin this summer, and (3) draft chapters for council review with the aim of a publication-ready plan in December 2026.

Council members raised several items they want reflected in the plan. Mike Noel, Kane County Water Conservancy, asked specifically about large projects: "I'm wondering, are you going to have any information on Lake Powell Pipeline for Washington County?" Stephanie confirmed projects such as the Lake Powell Pipeline will be covered in the projects chapter (chapter 5c).

Members asked the division to address Colorado River Basin issues, water-banking and demand-management topics. Jay Humphrey and others urged the division to explicitly include Colorado River Basin authorities and new statutes; one council member noted the creation of the Colorado River Authority of Utah as a recent basin-specific change the plan should reference. Bill (representing the Price River Watershed Conservation District) pointed to demand-management language and cited Code 73‑3‑30(4) as relevant to the Colorado River discussion; Stephanie acknowledged demand management and in‑stream flow and water‑banking laws will be reflected in the update.

Several speakers urged the division to include practical guidance for smaller communities on accounting for return flows from conservation measures — for example, how to credit reductions in depletions versus diversion savings — and to address how agricultural efficiency upgrades affect downstream users and markets. Sue Bellegamba of The Nature Conservancy asked the division to consider lessons from recent water‑marketing work: "you guys have a wonderful website on water marketing and just completed the big water marketing strategy... and I'm hoping that that will be looked at."

Stephanie said the division will send a survey in roughly one to two weeks, that the survey will be anonymous with an option to provide contact information for follow up, and that she will follow up with councils to identify local volunteers to help compile chapter‑8 (basin) inputs. She asked councils to prioritize contributions for the basin chapter but welcomed comments on other chapters as capacity allows.

No formal policy or regulation changes were adopted at the meeting. The council approved routine business: the minutes from the Feb. 11 meeting were moved and seconded and accepted without further action.

Next steps: council members expect the division to circulate the five‑page outline and the short survey, schedule summer scoping meetings for each basin, and share draft basin chapters for review. Council members were asked to identify high‑priority local projects and coordinate to submit those projects to the state's infrastructure funding processes.

Ending — how to follow up: the Division of Water Resources staff asked council members to send project lists and local priorities to the identified contacts and to participate in the planned basin scoping meetings so their local issues appear in the basin chapter and in materials that will go to the Legislature.