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Utah And Arches National Park Reach A Water Rights Agreement

Jon Kovash
Water agreement strives to provide enough water while still protecting.

Arches National Park has reached an agreement with the State of Utah regarding water rights in the park.

The new agreement intends to make sure the park has enough water for administrative and campground uses, and also establishes a protection zone, to ensure the flows of streams, seeps and springs within the park. Attending a signing ceremony on Friday were Governor Gary  Herbert and state officials, including Mike Styler, director of Utah’s Natural Resources Department:

“Many years ago the Supreme Court said that Congress intended for there to be reserved water rights for places like national parks and for Native American reservations. They just never said how much. They left it up to the state and the federal government to negotiate it. This agreement has set aside, we’ve come up with an amount, that will serve the park, but it will also protect local water users.”

Styler said other states have either ignored the issue, or resorted to litigation, but Arches is the 10th agreement that Utah has worked out with a national park unit in the state, and Bryce Canyon will be the next. Virtually all of the assembled officials called it a “win win” situation, including Governor Herbert: 

“And I know this is a work, a labor of love for many people to get this resolved. It certainly is a significant modification and certainly is a significant resolution that we’re celebrating here today. And I am so proud of the work that we’ve done here in the past with the Department of Interior in trying to resolve some of these difficult issues that we’ve had here, you know, for twenty plus years on public lands.”

Stephen Kirby is one of the scientists who conducted hydrology and water chemistry studies in the park.

“A bunch of the perennial stream flow in Court House Wash, and also some of the groundwater within Arches National Park is interconnected with areas there to the north and west of here.”

The agreement will also ensure surface flows in the 7 Mile Canyon and Salt Wash drainages, and it protects ground water in the Entrada aquifer beneath the park. No future permits will be granted to drill into the Entrada, but the park’s senior, 1929 water rights will be subordinated to existing ranch, farm and recreational users who hold junior rights.

Originally from Wyoming, Jon Kovash has practiced journalism throughout the intermountain west. He was editor of the student paper at Denver’s Metropolitan College and an early editor at the Aspen Daily News. He served as KOTO/Telluride’s news director for fifteen years, during which time he developed and produced Thin Air, an award-winning regional radio news magazine that ran on 20 community stations in the Four Corners states. In Utah his reports have been featured on KUER/SLC and KZMU/Moab. Kovash is a senior correspondent for Mountain Gazette and plays alto sax in “Moab’s largest garage band."