State engineers, USGS outline groundwater‑management process for Sand Hollow; petition filed to start plan

Teresa Wilhelmsen, Utah state engineer and director of the Division of Water Rights, and U.S. Geological Survey officials on Tuesday described the process for developing a groundwater management plan for the Sand Hollow area after a group of local water users filed a petition asking the state engineer to adopt such a plan.

Wilhelmsen said the meeting was intended as a kickoff to explain how the state would evaluate groundwater availability and involve the public. “We’re gonna talk to you about groundwater management plans and the request the petition that was submitted to the state engineer for the Sand Hollow area,” she said.

The petition triggered a statutorily prescribed process under Utah Code 73‑5‑15, Assistant State Engineer Jim Reese said, and the Division cannot regulate groundwater withdrawals in the area until it completes required studies, notices and public meetings. Reese described a groundwater management plan as a tool to distribute limited groundwater and, if necessary, to limit withdrawals by priority date when pumping exceeds the basin’s safe yield. “One way a groundwater management plan might be established is that the state engineer decides to do so,” Reese said. “...the state engineer is compelled to actually do a plan if…