UPPER STILLWATER DAM, Utah — The golf carts drove eight miles through a dark tunnel buried 3,000 feet under the mountaintop in the Uintas.
Lawmakers, local officials and staffers at the Central Utah Water Conservancy District were getting a very close look at where a significant portion of the Wasatch Front's drinking water supply comes from. After more than an hour of driving through the tunnel, they emerged outside Upper Stillwater Dam.
"Water from this reservoir is able to make it to the state Capitol and also to the airport so that far north into Salt Lake County and all across the east and west, everyone’s getting water from this," said Dylan Dastrup the Stillwater area manager for the water district.
The snowmelt captured and stored at the Upper Stillwater Reservoir is delivered by gravity through the tunnel down to Strawberry Reservoir, then to the heavily-populated Wasatch Front through Spanish Fork Canyon.
FOX 13 News accompanied members of the Utah State Legislature and local officials as they toured the Central Utah Project to see how it works and why it's considered a critical part of the Utah's use of Colorado River system water, taking water from Utah's side of the Colorado River Basin and depositing it in the Great Salt Lake Basin.
"The ability to go over the mountains, through the mountains, under the mountains are incredible engineering feats," said Rep. David Shallenberger, R-Orem.
Sen. Ron Winterton, R-Roosevelt, actually worked on construction of the Upper Stillwater Dam.
"I was one of the contractors that hauled material in here," he told FOX 13 News.
The Central Utah Project is nearly complete and it provides as much as 25% of the Wasatch Front's drinking water supply.
"Without this project here? The Salt Lake Valley wouldn’t be able to grow how it has," Sen. Winterton said.
The system of reservoirs doesn't just benefit the Wasatch Front, but eastern Utah communities as well.
"We depend on the water that’s stored in Starvation Reservoir for all of our water," Duchesne Mayor Deborah Herron told FOX 13 News as she stood at Upper Stillwater Dam.
She and others are paying close attention to the battles over the Colorado River as the states along the river have failed to reach an agreement governing the water for more than 40 million people across the American West. There is more demand for water than there is supply lately, and some research is warning that the entire system is headed for a crash.
Dastrup said while the Great Salt Lake is a top concern for the urban areas of Utah, people should also be watching what's happening with the Colorado River because it is their water supply, too.
"Utah and Salt Lake counties are the Colorado River," he said. "When we’re conserving water out there? We’re conserving the Colorado River."
With no multi-state deal, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is now running things along the river. It includes releasing water from Flaming Gorge to prop up Lake Powell. The state of Nevada recently filed a lawsuit over the federal government's plan to manage things, which includes water cuts to Arizona, Nevada and California. Arizona recently filed papers in federal court to join that lawsuit. Upper Basin states like Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico have been pushed to do more conservation.
For Utah political leaders, the visit to the Central Utah Project is another reason to push for a resolution between the states.
"The Colorado River is vital for the future of Utah and for our neighbors, for the states surrounding us," Rep. Shallenberger said. "We need to come together. We need to find a solution."
This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver