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Committee approves dedicated-water application to speed leases to Great Salt Lake and Colorado River projects
Summary
HB 348 (substitute) would create a formal 'dedicated water' application process to expedite voluntary leases or dedications for in-stream flows, sovereign lands and Colorado River demand-management projects while protecting underlying water rights; the committee passed the substitute after agency testimony on annual reporting and priority processing.
Representative Covert (presented as sponsor) introduced HB 348, describing a new application type — "dedicated water applications" — to streamline voluntary efforts to dedicate or lease water to the Great Salt Lake, in-stream flows, and Colorado River projects without changing underlying water rights.
Teresa Wilhelmsen, state engineer and director of the Division of Water Rights, told the committee the process would prioritize these applications and substitute annual reporting for the proof-of-beneficial-use requirement so that water rights holders could choose each year whether to use water for agriculture or dedicate it to the lake or demand-management programs. "The state engineer shall prioritize the processing of these applications so that they will come first," she said, and described tracking and end-of-year accounting to verify deliveries.
Committee members asked whether prioritized processing would push other applications back; Wilhelmsen said it would jump dedicated-water applications in front of other applications. Members also discussed sideboards to protect agriculture (for example limiting participation to two of five years on the same field). The committee adopted the substitute and passed HB 348 out favorably by voice vote.
