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State bills tighten water-rights rules and boost funding access for local projects
Summary
Utah water-rights and policy changes passed this session include clarifications for lapsed applications, new rules for public‑land watering claims (PWR 107), expanded funding for agricultural optimization projects and investments in a Water Right Network that state officials say could help Emery County prioritize projects for legislative funding.
Cash Stallings, regional engineer with the Utah Division of Water Rights, told the Emery County Public Lands Council that multiple bills passed this session will affect local water management and funding. “So this is house bill 41. They call, state water policy amendments,” Stallings said, adding that the bill emphasizes groundwater quality monitoring and promotes the state water plan.
Stallings urged local users to bring water projects to county and watershed councils so they can be included in the state water plan and receive priority for legislative funding. He described amendments clarifying the treatment of lapsed water-right applications and the state engineer’s authority to process reinstatements and set consequences for missed deadlines.
The division also explained new statutory treatment for public‑land watering claims (so‑called PWR 107 claims). Stallings said the legislation sets limits on where those claims may be filed and specifies they cover springs and natural water holes for stock‑watering and domestic use, not manmade impoundments or stretches of stream. “This legislation did that. It set forth the parameters in which the state engineer’s office is gonna function,” he said.
Other changes cover water‑transfer and recording rules (affidavit transfers of irrigation‑company shares have been constrained and most Division of Water Rights forms can now be digitally signed) and access to a restricted legal fund to pay certain non‑adjudication legal fees. Stallings also highlighted agricultural‑optimization amendments that raise grant funding for eligible projects from typical 50 percent to up to 75 percent for subsurface drip, automated surge and advanced measurement/telemetry projects.
Stallings described the Water Right Network, a web‑based interactive tool the division is developing to visualize water‑rights data, measurement and diversions. He said the governor provided funding to expand the team and begin work on the Great Salt Lake region so local irrigators can validate mapped rights and measurements.
Council members asked procedural and scope questions during the update; Stallings noted Emery County sits in the Western Colorado watershed council and that the timing of the state water‑plan process makes the next year an opportunity to get projects onto the funding radar. The update concluded with guidance to work with county representatives to ensure local projects are visible to state planners.
