Willard Canal Runs Throuth Marriott-Slaterville City May 23, 2013 Weber Basin earns federal water-conservation grant to line Willard Canal By SCOTT SCHWEBKE Standard-Examiner staff sschwebke@standard.net LAYTON — The U.S. Interior Department has awarded more than $20 million in grants for water conservation projects in 11 Western states, including work to line the Willard Canal near Ogden with concrete. The WaterSMART grants announced Wednesday will fund a total of 44 projects, including a plan to convert earthen irrigation canals in Utah by lining them or converting them to pipelines, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority's landscape rebate program that provides homeowners with incentives to convert their grass lawns to water-efficient landscaping more suitable to the desert. Weber Basin Water Conservancy District based in Layton was awarded $1.5 million to help with efficiency projects on its canals. The funds awarded to Weber Basin will be used for the third phase of lining the Willard Canal, Tage Flint, general manager of the conservancy district, said Wednesday. The earthen canal carries about 1,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Weber River near 12th Street in Ogden to Willard Bay. The grant will line the canal with concrete for about three-quarters of a mile, finishing the third phase of the project that will cost $3.2 million. The conservancy district will fund the $1.7 million balance of the phase, and work will take place in 2014. There will be at least four more phases to the project that should be completed in 2016. The aim of the project is to save water from seeping from the canal and to conserve energy by making pumping more efficient, Flint said. The Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Water Authority was awarded a $300,000 grant toward a $3.3 million effort to expand its existing rebate program, which is expected to result in the replacement of 2.6 million square feet of thirsty turf. It should result in a savings of 448 acre- feet of water annually in the Colorado River, which provides supplies for southern Nevada, California and Arizona. The Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation estimates the grants will save more than 100,000 acre-feet of water annually — enough to supply 400,000 people. "Throughout the West, we're seeing that drought, growing populations, energy demands and basic environmental needs are stressing our finite water and energy supplies," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in announcing the grants "These WaterSMART grants will help stretch water supplies and im prove water and energy efficiencies in communities throughout the West to support sustainable uses of our limited resources," she said. Utah's six projects were second only to California's 10. Utah's Fremont Irrigation Co. and Cub River Irrigation Co. each were awarded $1.5 million. Fremont Irrigation is spending $8.2 million overall on about 6 miles of new pipeline planned in Southern Utah to help prevent seepage and evaporation. Cub River is doing the same with 6.5 miles of ditches in Northern Utah's Middle Ditch Water Conservation District at a cost of $4 million. The Strawberry Highlight Canal Company in Payson is getting a pair of $300,000 grants — one for its Lateral 31 Pipe Conversion project with about 4,000 feet of new pipeline and one to replace 3.5 miles of the open Genola canal system with 1.75 miles of new pipeline using a more direct delivery route. Those two projects combined are expected to cost nearly $1.5 million. Northern Utah's Wellsville- Mendon Conservation District gets $183,000 for its $370,000 plan to line 2,250 feet of the Wellsville-Mendon Canal with rubber membrane and convert 1,800 feet of the Pump Canal to pipe. California's biggest grants were $1.5 million for the Patterson Irrigation District to install three new pump stations and 3.7 miles of new pipeline in the San Joaquin Valley, and more than $1.4 million for the North Yuba Water District's $3.2 million plan to pipe the entire length of the 10-mile Upper Forbestown Canal in Northern California. Grant recipients are required to provide at least a 50 percent funding match. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 186