Provo River Water Users details Deer Creek intake project progress and funding at Highland City meeting

Provo River Water Users Association officials described steady progress this week on the Deer Creek Intake Project and outlined how the $100 million program is being paid for.

The update Wednesday to the Highland City Council summarized work completed through the project’s second year, including excavation and the successful recovery of a micro-tunnel boring machine the presenters called the “Wasatch worm.” Provo River Water Users General Manager Jeff Budge and association representative Brad Jorgensen said the machine reached its target almost dead center during an underwater “wet recovery.”

Why it matters: the intake and bypass piping are intended to let crews bypass the existing intake so crews can refurbish century-old guard gates and other intake infrastructure — work the association says is needed to maintain water supplies and downstream deliveries to irrigation and municipal shareholders.

Budge described the project as necessary to ensure reliable delivery of stored mountain water to downstream users and said the work will allow crews to isolate and repair the…