2A: Water shepherding: delivering saved water to Great Salt Lake

Water conservation is the adoption of practices that reduce water depletion to enhance water availability and minimize impacts on water supply, water quality, and the environment. Water shepherding is the legal authority and practice of distributing water through river systems and past intervening users to fulfill demands based on water right priority. Recent legislation in Utah provides a mechanism to lease or purchase water rights and to allocate water for instream flow or Great Salt Lake (water from these transactions can now be used to preserve or enhance the natural aquatic environment).

Delivering water to specific destinations requires thorough measurement and a detailed accounting of water movement. Utah Water Commissioners on 13 separate distribution systems within the basin actively monitor about 700 total measurement sites to distribute water to existing users. This process can be improved with additional measurements and better transparency of flows and water right accounting data. This can aid efforts to ensure saved water reaches its intended destination such as Great Salt Lake.

The Utah Division of Water Rights and Utah State University are working together to identify and prioritize locations for new measurement and telemetry equipment, improve sharing of streamflow and diversion information, and communicate water rights accounting information in a user-friendly format. The new cooperative work builds on the distribution and accounting systems developed and refined by the division beginning in 1919, which incorporates existing streamflow and diversion data, water rights information, and accounting tools. The new work provides opportunities to increase water data access and transparency for water users to change elements of their water rights, some of which may support Great Salt Lake and other ecosystems reliant on the complex water distribution systems throughout the state.