Forum

Forum's subjects include Utah water, telecommunications

Jan. 26, 2002

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

Piping water from McPhee Reservoir to southeastern Utah for municipal use was one of the topics discussed at a San Juan Forum meeting at the Cortez Welcome Center on Friday.

"One thing I know for sure about water — it flows downhill, except with money it will flow anywhere you want it to," said Ed Sherick, San Juan County, Utah, planner.

San Juan County is developing a drought-mitigation plan, to decide how to provide water to its citizens when it doesn’t rain or snow. The plan prioritizes 10 or 12 projects, including the idea of bringing water from McPhee to Blanding and Monticello.

The county hopes it could expand the canal system from Dove Creek and build a reservoir to pipe water to Blanding and Monticello. The subject has been brought before the Dolores Water Conservancy District board, and could be feasible, but only if the Utah communities could afford the expensive project.

Right now, Blanding is trying to expand its drinking-water system at a cost of $6.5 million. Monticello’s repairs of its water-delivery and collection system are estimated at $4 million.

"For the moment we’ll just settle for making sure when we turn on the tap, water comes out," said Sherick.

Utah is the second-driest state in the nation (next to Nevada), and has the highest per-capita water use in the nation, according to Dale Pearson, representing the Spanish Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District.

But, he said, the issues Utah faces are not that much different from those around the nation — primarily how to provide enough water to allow states and municipalities to grow and develop.

Outside of southeastern Utah water interests, the forum’s two dozen participants also heard a presentation on FasTrack, the new telecommunications subsidiary of the La Plata Electric and Empire Electric associations. The new company was formed from the assets of the now-bankrupt REAnet, and will be used to provide wholesale broadband-fiber services to Farmington, and eventually Cortez and Durango.

"We’ve had plenty of failures, but I think one of our biggest successes is building the fiber backbone in the area," said Davin Montoya, current president of La Plata Electric.

The company owns 4.5 fibers running from Farmington to Albuquerque that are lit, said Montoya, and customers should be able to buy fiber access soon. Montoya stressed that FasTrack didn’t want to take any customers until it was sure the system would work.

He likened the coming of fiber-optic access to electrical power in its significance for the region’s economy.

"It may be a few months; it may be a few years before we get to Cortez. You have to crawl before you walk," said Montoya.

If Tri-State Transmission and Generation succeeds in purchasing the assets of the now-bankrupt Pathnet, which partnered with Tri-State and the electric co-operatives to put in a fiber-optics backbone between Albuquerque and Grand Junction, access to high-speed telecommunications could be cheaper for Four Corners communities whose only option right now is Qwest.

Only one formal resolution was passed at the meeting. The forum gave Director Dave Eppich, from Fort Lewis College, the go-ahead to write Colorado’s Secretary of Local Affairs, Bob Brooks, and urge him to contribute $500,000 from his budget toward the building of a Four Corners Monument.

The Utah and Arizona legislatures have already appropriated matching funds for the monument, but New Mexico and Colorado have lagged behind. Congress put up $2 million for the project.

The San Juan Forum is a non-profit corporation that focuses on economic development in the Four Corners region. It was formed in 1991 and includes representatives from the region’s four tribes, 10 counties, municipalities, state government, and private business interests.