Annual Meeting Of Escalante Valley Water Users
May 24, 2011 Enterprise City Offices 7:00 PM
Representing the State Engineers Office were Kent Jones, State Engineer, Boyd Clayton, Deputy State Engineer, Kurt Vest, Regional Manager.
President Mike Brown conducted the meeting.
There was a motion by Brad Bowler and second by Kerry Holt to approve the minutes of the May 25, 2010 meeting. Voting was unanimous.
There was a motion by Marlo Reber and second by Steve Jones to approve the financial report dated May 24, 2011. Voting was unanimous
Mike Brown reviewed the present Board makeup and the vacancies and then called for elections. There was a motion by Nyal Bosshardt and second by Kerry Holt to suspend the rules and re-elect Bob Holt, Howard Bracken, Mike Brown, and Steve Jones to two year positions. Voting Unanimous.
LaDel Laub gave a power point presentation reviewing some history and some ideas to address the groundwater decline in the valley. Lee Bracken provided some information and led a discussion on the concept of forming a local district. Some advantages and challenges were reviewed.
Kent Jones presented a DRAFT groundwater management plan document to be considered. That document identified the excess depletion that is occurring in the valley and the approximate amount of reduction needed to achieve safe yield. It provided a table that defined a schedule to reduce depletion that included a 5% reduction at the end of 20 years and another 5% reduction at the end of 40 years. Using adaptive management the depletion would be monitored and re-evaluated and then reduced another 5% at the end of each 10 year cycle to the approximate year 2130 or until safe yield is achieved. The plan would allow for a voluntary arrangement among users to accomplish the required reductions. A public meeting will be scheduled in the fall the being the process for formalizing the groundwater management plan. It was followed by extensive discussion.
Among those attending were Mike Brown, LaDel Laub, Brad Bowler, Kerry Holt, Michael Singleton, Larry Shurtliff, Jared Holt, John Brown, Sherwood Bracken, Lee Bracken, Nyal Bosshardt, Ranon Reber, David Bosshardt, Marvin Bracken, Eric Jones, Steve Jones, Mark Jones, Marlo Reber, Phillip Gardner, Leon Platt, Klayton Holt, Robert Holt.
