LAYTON -- A proposal to cut water use by 35 percent is "easier said than done," the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District chief says. Tage Flint, general manager of the district, said a proposal released late last week by the Utah Rivers Council of 35 percent would "solve a lot of problems," but is "nothing new." "It's basically nothing really new we haven't heard from them before," he said. "We're not as far away from some of their plan as they might think." The Salt Lake City-based environmental group released a report saying a proposed $680 million Bear River water project is "unneeded and not cost effective." The project would divert some of the unused water from the Bear River and pipe it through Weber and Davis counties for use in Davis and Salt Lake counties.

Weber Basin has already purchased a lot of right-of-way for placement of pipes throughout the county.

River Council spokesperson Amy Defreese said the "State conservation goal is 25 percent now. The state has already achieved 17 percent. To reach a goal of 25 percent by 2050 is very doable.

"Our proposal is that the state could bump that proposal up to 35 percent and combine it with conversion of agricultural rights to municipal and industrial water," she said.

The Rivers group proposes using up to 20 percent of agricultural water transfers predicted to be available in 2050.

" Of any acreage applied to a farm, probably half returns to a stream or lake," Flint said. "You can't rob one side just to make the other look better.

"To get to 25 percent would probably be 10 times harder than the first half was (14 percent)," Flint continued.

"There are a number of different conservation programs used around the West," De-freese, river defense coordinator for the group, said. Those include water recycling, water re-use, rip out strip (or turning parking strips to gravel, etc.).

"People are encouraged to convert their lawns from blue grass to xeriscaped," she said. "Utah is the fourth largest (per capita) water consumer in the U.S.," down from second.

"What we've found so far is that the public response to drastic changes in landscape, to a desert-type, is not where they want to be for Northern Utah," Flint said.

Secondary water systems should be metered to encourage more conservation, Defreese said. "If there are less expensive ways to deal with needs, those should be considered."

"Only after other programs are exhausted (to conserve water) would we think about importing new supplies," Flint said, pointing to 2025 as the earliest date now being considered to possibly tap Bear River water. That is a change of about 12 years from earlier projections.

"It's all growth dependent. If it continues like last year, it will be sooner" than 2025, Flint said.

"We'd have to put to the public the question of what they want. Do they drastically want to change their landscapes, continue to have additional water for additional use, at a more efficient landscape than we (traditionally) have now?

"In almost every case, all of those options have a higher price than with present supplies," Flint said.

The Bear River Development Act stipulates that state funds would pay to carry water initially from the Bear River to the Weber County line. That cost eventually would have to be repaid by water users.

Weber Basin and the Jordan Valley water systems would convey the water and treat it farther south.

"We're approaching $500 million" on project costs, Flint said, adding that eventually, "water rates would start reflecting" construction costs.

"It's time to move beyond old-fashioned ideas such as building more dams to increase the water supply," said the Water Council's Mark Danenhauer, water solutions coordinator. "Modern water management involves looking for creative demand side solutions."

HB 45, sponsored by Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, during the last legislative session, authorizes pre-construction funding for the proposed Bear River dam/reservoir project.

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com