Metro Water Project Celebration

Program kicks off celebration event.

August 24, 2007 

Comments of LeRoy W. Hooton, Jr.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak at this special event.

The new Point of the Mountain Water Treatment Plant.
The Metro Water Project has enormous benefits: additional water supply to meet our future water needs for the next 25 years, protection against droughts and infrastructure redundancy. The project cost of $250 million is the largest public works (water) project that has ever been built in Utah and primarily funded by just two cities.

We’re here to celebrate the completion of the project; however I would like to speak about those who built the water facilities that we enjoy today. Each generation is asked to pay for facilities that will benefit future generations.

In 1928, Salt Lake City was running out of water. Most of its water supply came from the Wasatch Canyon streams, which experience seasonal flow fluctuations with high flows in the spring and greatly diminished flows during the summer and early fall months when the water demand is the greatest. Also, these stream supplies were subject periodical drought resulting in severe water shortages.

Mayor Bowman formed a Citizens Committee to study the means of providing a firm water supply for 400,000 people.  The Citizens Committee studied both local and imported water supplies. Water imported from the Green, Bear, Weber and Provo Rivers were all studied. The Committee’s first priority recommendation was the Provo River Project and Deer Creek Reservoir on the Provo River.

In 1935 in order to participate in the Provo River Project, the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City was formed.  And during the worst of times, with the Great Depression and the worst drought of record, the citizens of Salt Lake City indebted themselves to repay the Provo River Project and Salt Lake Aqueduct. Later in 1960, Salt Lake City voters approved a bond to finance the construction of the Little Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant.

Many of those who voted for the project probably never lived long enough to see the benefit of their investments. It was not until early 1960s that water was treated and delivered to Salt Lake City.

The Project for over 30 years fueled development along the eastern Salt Lake valley that now includes the cities of Holladay and Cottonwood Heights. Also, surplus water was made available for valley-wide growth and development. Deer Creek Reservoir was the only large storage project until the late 1980s when Central Utah Project water was delivered into Salt LakeCounty (under the Deer Creek Exchange).

LR- Carlton Christensen, LeRoy Hooton and Mike Wilson.
In 1990 Sandy City was annexed into the Metropolitan Water District and it been a wonderful partnership between the two cities and Metro.

Seventy years after Mayor Bowman established a citizen’s committee to study possible water supply alternatives, Salt Lake City and Sandy City conducted master plans to determine their future water supply needs. Under the leadership of Nick Sefakis, Metro combined the plans and developed a plan that ultimately led to the project that we are cerebrating here today.

The Metro Water Project will provide water supply to future generations and they will be thankful for this generation’s vision and investment in these facilities.