Salt Lake County Mayor Corroon Wants State to Wait on Snake Valley Aquifer Deal

08.03.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon thinks it’s premature for Utah officials to sign a deal with Nevada splitting the Snake Valley Aquifer. He says the state should wait until scientific studies are completed on the impacts it will have throughout the region and along the Wasatch Front.

“Not only does it effect the people in the western part of the state, but it can also effect us if the aquifer dries up and creates a dust bowl, which blows directly towards Salt Lake County,” Corroon says.

The agreement is expected to be completed soon, and signed by the end of the year. But Corroon says stakeholders have yet to see the agreement for themselves. He says the Utah Association of Counties is trying to set up a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert to get more details, and to urge the soon-to-be governor to postpone the agreement until the scientific study is released.

Mayor Corroon also worries signing the agreement now could cost Salt Lake County taxpayers in the future. New, stricter air quality standards could put the county at risk of losing federal transportation dollars for having poor air quality, which he believes will only get worse if the aquifer dries up.

“Salt Lake County has air quality issues, as we all know. And we now are facing the possibility of being in a nonattainment area, meaning our air quality won’t be good enough for federal standards,” Corroon says. “If that happens, we can lose transportation dollars.”

Officials in Nevada are also worried the states are rushing into an agreement too soon. White Pine County Commission Chairwoman Laurie Carson wrote a letter to Governor Jon Huntsman in June, asking the state not to sign the agreement with Nevada until after the results of the scientific study are released.