Cottonwood Creek irrigation holds annual meeting

By PHIL FAUVER Staff writer

The Annual Stockholders meeting of Cottonwood Creek Consolidated Irrigation Company was held in January at the Orangeville Community Center. Pres.
Craig Johansen started by reading the purpose of the meeting followed by passing around the snow depth information.
We are at about 120 percent of normal at this point. January’s forecast for Joe’s Valley inflow is estimated at 75,000 acre feet and the normal is 58,000 acre feet. The Joe’s Valley reservoir holds 62,500 acre feet. It is now down about 20,000 acre feet. So it will hold a lot of what comes in. It appears we are starting a good water year.
“The most important record we keep as an irrigation company is the record of how much water we use each year. We delivered 65,612 acre feet in 2009,” said Johansen.
The financial report was handed out to the membership for the year ending Dec. 31, 2010. Clyde Magnuson gave the River Commissioner report. At this time we have 42,460 acre feet of water in the reservoir.
Johansen mentioned Senate Bill 99 which purports to allow an individual stockholder to transfer his shares out of the irrigation company service area. This was fought all summer in the legislative task force. It was finally taken off the table. There is a group on the Wasatch Front that wants to take water from the Santaquin Basin and bring it into Salt Lake. They also want to take water from the Weber Basin area. This is not a good thing for the irrigation company. Expect this bill to surface again in the Senate or Legislature. This legislation is of grave concern to the irrigation company.
This legislation is being pushed by a coalition of conservancy districts, and most of the municipalities along the Wasatch Front. They want to get water out of agriculture and put it into municipal.
Johansen gave a progress report on the Clipper Western Salinity Project, that is the piping of the Clipper Western Canal. Funding from the Bureau of Reclamation is $6.5 million they gave us $3.5 million as of Oct. 1 to start the project. Another $3 million will be available on Oct. 1 of next year. That project is being installed in two phases. Water will not be available in that system until 2013. Do not sign any NRCS contracts that would require you to use water before that.
“Once we start putting in the pipe you can contact NRCS and be working with them on farm equipment.
Before the funds can be released we have to certify that all of the rights of way are in place,” said Johansen.
Phase two of this project will be installed in 2012 and the project will be in operation in 2014.
Johansen said, ‘We will do the down stream part first and then we will put the main line to the reservoir. Most of the farm connections will be put on in phase 1. On the Adobe Wash Reservoir and the Adobe Wash Reservoir pipe line project, we have a map that shows where the pipe line will go.”
Johansen pointed out on the map the location of the Adobe Wash Reservoir and the pipe line that will feed the reservoir.
The estimated cost of the pipe line and the reservoir is about $8 million dollars. Johansen then discussed and welcomed PacifiCorp’s assistance with this project.
Plans for the reservoir are finished and have been submitted to the State Engineer for approval. “We have completed the cultural resource inventory for the reservoir, the pipe line and all of the pipe lines in the system.
That inventory cost $45,000. XTO has a pipe line that goes through the reservoir that will have to be moved. The estimated cost to move the pipe line is $250,000,” said Johansen.
Ross Huntington reported on the agriculture assessment. There are 32,923.7 shares in the company and the total annual assessment is 364,228.33. After factoring out the shares owned by PacifiCorp, Orangeville, Castle Dale and other entities, that leaves 21,027.88 shares of stock that is used for agriculture purposes. The estimated assessment strictly for agriculture is 92,309.26 at this time. The estimated assessment per share in 2012 will be $6.
The reservoir will hold about 900 acre feet of water. They are working to get a water right for the reservoir and a right to store water there year around, and think this project will be an advantage to both industry and agriculture.
At the end of the meeting an election was held to elect board members or directors for the coming year. They are: Craig Johansen, Cory Cloward, and Clyde Magnuson on the Mammoth Canal, Dixon Huntington and Justus Jorgensen on the Blue Cut Canal and Carl Justesen and Ross Huntington on the Clipper and Western Canal. Craig Johansen was elected as President, Dixon Huntington as Vice President and Stan Mathis, Secretary Treasurer.