1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

Irresponsible Water Use! This is one of Utah's stupidest proposed water projects, just in time for Halloween. The new Environmental Impact Statement that has been released for Cove Reservoir, a 40 million dollar proposed dam on the East Fork of the Virgin River just upstream of Zion National Park. The Kane County Water District originally proposed this boondoggle in 2020, and now they're playing the same game they did back then by pretending that building a new reservoir will magically create water and have no impacts to the Colorado River Basin. Back in 2020, the water district claimed this project would provide water to farmers so that they could receive generous funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Utah Rivers Council researched the "agricultural" lands identified by the water district, and what they found was a total scam. The supposed agricultural lands to be served by water from Cove Reservoir was actually not farmland at all. It was a series of subdivisions under construction. Effectively, the water district was trying to develop this water for municipal use without paying the full price for the project by claiming it was for agriculture, thereby making taxpayers like me, pay for most of it. Now Kane County Water District is back again trying to fleece taxpayers for a project that will impact one of America's national treasures: Zion National Park. And the project once again purports to benefit agriculture so that the project can receive generous financing terms at the expense of American farmers. But the diverted water will also be used for municipal water use in Washington County - America's most wasteful water user. I'm writing to push for the defeat of this project! This is a reckless and wasteful project, seeking to use my tax dollars to divert Colorado River water from the landscapes it belongs to for a boondoggle that shouldn't have been allowed to come into existence in the first place! It is long past time that excessive development, in areas with little to no evidence that water resources will be naturally replenished in the now or the future, both residential and commercial, be Stopped. This is broken Irresponsible Thinking. A Utah Constituent Disgusted With The Way Our Government Officials And Non-representatives Are Throwing Away The Ecological Future Of Utah's Natural Heritage!