House approves changes to Bear River development list, allows property purchases without immediate development

The Utah House on Feb. 27 approved Senate Bill 92, a package of changes to the Bear River development project list that removes highly contested sites and adds alternatives intended to preserve options for future water development.

Representative Eli Anderson, the bill’s floor sponsor, told colleagues the bill takes “one out and adding that in” — removing the previously proposed Honeyville site and adding an alternate site near Plymouth while adjusting an interconnect at the end of the river to provide additional access for development. Anderson said the Honeyville proposal had “great opposition,” citing impacts on municipal water supplies, state highways, cemeteries and Indian burial grounds.

Members questioned whether the bill would permanently block future development at sites removed from the list. Anderson said removal of a site from the statute does not preclude the legislature from adding it back later and that any actual development would still require legislative authorization and funding. Representative Curtis successfully moved to reconsider the bill later in the session to insert a clarifying amendment that “the purchase of real property does not constitute water development,” a change the sponsor said would allow water districts to acquire property but not to proceed with development without further legislative oversight.

The House recorded the bill’s passage with a roll-call tally announced on the floor; the bill will be returned to the Senate for further consideration and any signature steps required.

The action leaves intact the legislature’s authority to add or remove sites from the development list in the future, but several members urged that funding and environmental impacts be clarified before any development proceeds.

Next steps: SB 92 was transmitted to the Senate for further consideration with the House amendment.