Online Application Portal

The Utah Division of Water Rights has announced a new "Application and Filing Payment Portal" that allows for online filing of water applications. The following applications can now be filed online:

• Application to Appropriate
• Change Application
• Exchange Application
• Report of Conveyance
• Segregation Request
• Consolidation Request

The filing portal can be accessed by clicking here.

Personnel Changes at Utah Division of Water Rights

Over the past few months, the Division of Water Rights has made a number of staffing changes, including the following:

Jared Manning is now the Assistant State Engineer for the newly formed Data Services section (previously Deputy State Engineer).

Michael Drake is now a Deputy State Engineer (previously Assistant State Engineer for Adjudications).

Chase McDonald is now the Assistant State Engineer for Adjudications (previously regional engineer for the Utah Lake / Jordan River region).

Ryan Hamilton is now the regional engineer for the Utah Lake / Jordan River region (previously regional engineer for the Weber River / Western region).

Ryan Broadbent is now the regional engineer for the Weber River / Western region (previously in Adjudications).

Nathan Moses is now the Assistant State Engineer for Field Services (previously regional engineer for the Cedar City / Southwestern region).

Michael Freeman is now the regional engineer for the Cedar City / Southwestern region (previously with US Bureau of Reclamation).

Personnel Changes at Utah Division of Water Rights

In the past few months, there have been several leadership changes at the Utah Division of Water Rights.

James Greer has left the Division and Jared Manning has been appointed to fill his position as Deputy State Engineer.

Blake Bingham has returned from military service and has been appointed to the new Deputy State Engineer position created by House Bill 334.

Eric Jones has been appointed to be the Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records.

Kirk Forbush has retired and Terry Monroe has been appointed as Regional Engineer for the Sevier River/Southern Regional Office.

Chase McDonald has been appointed as Regional Engineer for the Utah Lake/Jordan River Office.

Personnel Changes at Utah Division of Water Rights

Assistant State Engineer Blake Bingham will be taking a leave of absence from the Division of Water Rights for military service. Accordingly, the Division will be making some personnel changes.

Jared Manning will take the position of Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records.

Ross Hansen will take the position of Assistant State Engineer for Field Services.

Eric Jones will take the position of Regional Engineer for the Utah Lake / Jordan River Regional Office.

Gary Brimley will take the position of Regional Engineer for the Weber River / Western Regional Office.

These personnel changes will take effect next week.

Utah Dam Safety Inspections Using Drones

The Utah Division of Water Rights has recently announced that its dam safety section has acquired a drone and licensed two Division employees as drone pilots so that the Division can integrate drone technology into their program to inspect, evaluate, and monitor dams in the state. The implementation of drone technology will improve dam oversight and also increase staff efficiency while onsite at dam inspections.

For more information regarding the dam safety section's implementation of drone technology, click here.

Change Application Tracker

Each year, hundreds of change applications are filed with the Utah Division of Water Rights. It generally takes a couple of months for a change application to go through the approval process -- and it can take even longer if protests are filed or if the Division elects to hold a hearing on the change application. Previously, the Division gave very little information about where a change application was at in the approval process. An applicant didn't know if their change application was in the final stages of review and only a few days away from a decision being issued, or if the Division was holding the change application due to some issue discovered during the review process.

Yesterday, the Division unveiled its new Change Application Tracker Tool, which provides a complete list of all unapproved change applications and includes information about where each change application is at in the approval process. The tool also provides information about whether a hearing has been requested or held; a "percent complete" column to give an indication of how far along in the process the change application is; and a comments section regarding issues that the Division has identified, additional information that the Division has requested from the applicant, and other notes about the change application.

This tool provides greater transparency in the process and will be a huge benefit to all water right owners that have pending change applications.

To access the Change Application Tracker Tool, click here.

Personnel Changes at Utah Division of Water Rights

In November 2019, Kent Jones retired as the State Engineer. Teresa Wilhelmsen, who was previously serving as Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records, was appointed the new State Engineer in March 2020. Boyd Clayton, who has served as Deputy State Engineer, is retiring in a few weeks. These changes have necessitated several more personnel changes within the Division of Water Rights.

• James Greer, who previously served as the Assistant State Engineer for Technical Services, has been appointed as the Deputy State Engineer.
• Blake Bingham, who previously served as the Assistant State Engineer for Adjudication, has been appointed as the Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records.
• Michael Drake, who previously served as the Regional Engineer for the Weber River/Western Region, has been appointed as the Assistant State Engineer for Adjudication.
• Jim Reese, who previously worked in Technical Services, has been appointed as the Assistant State Engineer for Technical Services.

The Division has not yet selected a new Regional Engineer for the Weber River/Wester Region.

New State Engineer

On March 2, 2020, Teresa Wilhelmsen was sworn in as the State Engineer for the State of Utah. Teresa has worked for the Division of Water Rights for the past 23 years, and previously served as the Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records. Teresa replaces Kent Jones, who retired as State Engineer in November 2019.

To view the video of the swearing in ceremony, click here.

Interim State Engineer

Kent L. Jones recently retired as State Engineer for the State of Utah. Until a new State Engineer is appointed, Boyd Clayton will serve as Interim State Engineer. Mr. Clayton has served as Deputy State Engineer for several years, and has announced that he will be retiring in 2020.

Retirement Celebration for Kent L. Jones

The Utah Division of Water Rights will be hosting a retirement celebration for State Engineer Kent L. Jones on Monday, November 4, 2019 from 3:00-5:00 pm at the Department of Natural Resources building.

Kent L. Jones Announces Retirement as State Engineer

Kent L. Jones, who has served as Utah State Engineer for the past ten years, has announced that he will be retiring from public service on November 16, 2019. The following information comes from the official announcement from the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

Kent L. Jones, P.E., the current state engineer and director of the Utah Division of Water Rights, has announced that he will retire from public service Nov. 16. Jones has spent almost 39 years with the division.

The governor appoints and the Utah Legislature approves the position of state engineer. Efforts are underway to identify and consider potential candidates.

Jones began his career with the division in 1981. While with the division, he has served in various roles, including assistant regional engineer for Utah Lake/Jordan River, regional engineer for the Weber River and West Desert, directing engineer for appropriations and title, and many more.

Jones was initially appointed state engineer by Gov. Jon Huntsman in 2009, and then reappointed to two additional four-year terms by Gov. Gary R. Herbert.

“I appreciate Kent’s commitment and years of dedication and service to the state of Utah,” said Gov. Herbert. “His leadership has played a vital role in the state’s ability to solve complex water challenges, and our ability to administer the appropriation and distribution of Utah’s water.”

As state engineer, Jones has represented the state and division through 11 legislative sessions and has been involved in a significant number of water right bills and adopted legislation. He has served as a technical advisor to the Utah Water Task Force and on the governor’s water strategy team.

Retirement of Regional Engineer Bob Leake

After more than 33 years working that the Utah Division of Water Rights, Regional Engineer Robert (Bob) Leake with be retiring on April 1, 2019. Bob has been working as the Regional Engineer for the Eastern Regional Office in Vernal. The Division will be hosting a retirement celebration on March 25, 2019 from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm at the Vernal office (318 North Vernal Avenue).

Thank you, Bob, for your many years of service!

Personnel Changes at Utah Division of Water Rights

The Utah Division of Water Rights has recently made some personnel changes in key positions. These changes include:

• John Mann has retired from his position as the Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records.
• Teresa Wilhelmsen, who was previously the Regional Engineer for the Utah Lake/Jordan River Region, has been appointed as the Assistant State Engineer for Applications and Records.
• Ross Hansen, who was previously the Regional Engineer for the Weber River/Western Region, has been appointed as the Regional Engineer for the Utah Lake/Jordan River Region.

The Division has not yet selected a new Regional Engineer for the Weber River/Western Region

Special Master Appointed

In a prior blog post, it was noted that the Utah Division of Water Rights had requested that the Third District Court appoint a Special Master to assist in resolving objections in the Utah Lake/Jordan River general adjudication. The process of selecting a Special Master has been ongoing for several months. Today, Judge Laura Scott issued an order appointing a Special Master. Rick L. Knuth was selected to serve as the Special Master.

The Special Master's duties, as provided by the order, include:
1--Actively manage objections, including scheduling, notifying the parties, holding status and settlement conferences, and holding hearings.
2--Encourage the parties to settle matters in dispute.
3--Designate subcases within the general adjudication case.
4--Identify the parties affected by a proposed settlement, provide notice to the affected parties, and hear objections to a proposed settlement.
5--Take evidence, oversee discovery, rule on procedural motions, and rule on substantive motions with a report and recommendation to the court.
6--Prepare a final report and recommendation for each subcase containing findings of fact and conclusions of law.

For more information about the Special Master selection process, click here.

Update on General Adjudications

The following article was written by David Hartvigsen, one of my partners at Smith Hartvigsen, PLLC, for the Water & The Law newsletter that our firm publishes on a quarterly basis. If you would like to receive an email version of the newsletter, please click here to join our mailing list.

There have been a few developments that water users in Utah should be aware of with respect to ongoing and future court proceedings called General Determinations of Water Rights or General Adjudications in river basins and sub-basins around the state. According to a General Adjudication status report on the Division of Water Rights ("DWR") website, there are currently 13 ongoing General Adjudications; most have been pending for decades, with the one on the Utah Lake/Jordan River drainage basin having been pending since 1936. These General Adjudications evaluate each water right within the basin being adjudicated and result in a decree on each water right which either disallows the water right (for such reasons as non-use) or validates the right with a new set of characteristics/limitations based on a Water Users Claim, a HydrographicSurvey, a Proposed Determination ("PD") from DWR, and any court hearing on objections to the findings in the PD. These newly validated water rights in the adjudication process become "decreed" rights. It is therefore absolutely essential that water users understand and participate in this General Adjudication process or they could potentially lose valuable water rights.

Of the 13 pending General Adjudications, I'm aware of recent activity in: Area 05 near Moab in the Southeastern Colorado River basin; Area 29 in the Bear River basin; and several areas in the Utah Lake/Jordan River basin, including Area 51 near Birdseye and Hobble Creek, Area 53 near Goshen, and Area 57 in the Harmony Park area and the Emigration Creek area. There is likely activity in a few other General Adjudications as well. Finally, there are also two different procedural matters that are being addressed in the Utah Lake/Jordan River General Adjudication and the State Engineer is proposing legislation to streamline all General Adjudications. These procedural and legislative matters should be of interest to all water users, even those in areas outside of the Utah Lake/Jordan River basin.

Legislative Proposal for the 2016 Session

The State Engineer has spearheaded an effort to find ways to both modernize and streamline the General Adjudication process. The results of that effort was recently presented to the Executive Water Rights Task Force. The main feature of the proposal is to get water users involved earlier in the process and to take more responsibility with asserting their water rights in the court proceeding. More specifically, once a water user receives notice that a General Adjudication is under way, the water user will be solely responsible for initiating preparation of a water user claim. DWR staff will assist upon request but will no longer prepare the forms on their own initiative and send them out to water users. Next, if a person or entity with a known water right fails to file a claim within the time specified in the notices, DWR staff will prepare and publish a "List of Unclaimed Rights of Record." This list will give water users one more chance to get their claims of record in the General Adjudication, but the penalty for filing at this stage is that the water user will be filing an objection to a determination that their water right has been abandoned and will need to submit sufficient evidence to overcome that determination. A final key point is that DWR staff will only do the Hydrographic Survey work on claims that have been filed, not on all water uses as has been the prior practice. Please watch for this legislation as it moves forward and get involved if you are either supportive or opposed to this proposal.

Appointment of a Special Master in the Utah Lake/Jordan River General Adjudication

DWR has also been asking the court in the Utah Lake/Jordan River General Adjudication to appoint a Special Master to assist with resolving objections and other specific issues in this long-pending case. The Special Master will be paid by specific appropriations by the Legislature to help speed up resolution of these adjudications. The concept is a good concept. The question is who should be appointed as this Special Master. An ideal candidate would be someone who is familiar with Utah water law, the Utah General Adjudication process, and general civil litigation procedure, but who also does not have any ties or conflicts of interests with water users in the area being adjudicated. We are not sure the ideal person exists and are watching to see who responds to open position notice being sent out by the court. Water users and other interested parties will be given a chance to weigh in on the decision of who to appoint once a pool of individuals is identified. Please watch for information and notices regarding this process as well.

Return Flow Credits for Imported Water
Finally, last year a settlement was reached and a stipulation was entered in the Utah Lake/Jordan River General Adjudication concerning a procedure for public input and protest on new applications for, and changes to existing formulas for, credits given to importers of water into this basin where the return flows migrate to Utah Lake. These credits are then typically used to allow for water stored in Deer Creek Reservoir, and potentially Jordanelle Reservoir, to be diverted directly to Salt Lake Valley for culinary use instead of flowing down the Provo River and into Utah Lake. The first such proposal to be considered under this new process is currently being processed by DWR. It was filed by the Provo River Water Users Association on Water Right No. 55-262. The new process appears to be working well, but this is a very complicated issue that could affect many water users on the Jordan River, so water users that may be affected will want to be watchful for notices regarding such Return Flow Credit proposals.

New Regional Engineer and Enforcement Engineer

There have been a few changes in personnel at the Division of Water Rights. Kerry Carpenter recently retired, leaving a vacancy in the Enforcement Engineer position.  Kurt Vest was appointed as the new Enforcement Engineer.  Mr. Vest was previously the regional engineer for the Southwestern Regional Office.  Nathan Moses has been appointed as the new regional engineer for the Southwestern Regional Office.

Contact information for these individuals and other Division of Water Rights personnel can be found by clicking here.

Proposed Appointment of a Special Master in General Adjudication

Recently, the Utah Division of Water Rights has asked the Third District Court to appoint a Special Master in the Utah Lake and Jordan River General Adjudication.  A Special Master is a person appointed by the court to take specific action on behalf of the court.  In the General Adjudication, the Division is asking to have a Special Master assist with resolving objections filed on the various Proposed Determinations in the General Adjudication.  The appointment of a Special Master in a General Adjudication is something that is new in Utah.  The proposal to appoint a Special Master is currently being advertised, and interested parties can file an opposition with the court.

Additional information, including the court pleadings, regarding the proposal to appoint a Special Master are available here.  The notice that was published is included below.

NOTICE TO WATER USERS OF MOTION TO APPOINT A MASTER IN THE UTAH LAKE AND JORDAN RIVER GENERAL DETERMINATION OF WATER RIGHTS.
A motion to appoint a master pursuant to Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 53 has been filed: IN THE MATTER OF THE GENERAL DETERMINATION OF RIGHTS TO THE USE OF WATER, BOTH SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND, WITHIN THE DRAINAGE AREA OF THE UTAH LAKE AND JORDAN RIVER IN UTAH, SALT LAKE, DAVIS, SUMMIT, WASATCH, SANPETE, AND JUAB COUNTIES IN UTAH. This action is pending in the Third Judicial District in and for Salt Lake County, State of Utah, Civil No. 360057298. The Division of Water Rights (State Engineer’s Office) has filed a motion to appoint a master pursuant to Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 53. Parties may obtain a copy of the motion and associated documents at www.waterrights.utah.gov/miscinfo/currentIssues.asp or on file with the 3rd District Court. Opposing memoranda are due within 30 days of the last date of publication of the notice; replies to opposing memoranda are due within 30 days of the final date for filing opposing memoranda. The Court has set a hearing on the motion on October 19, 2015 at 1:30 PM located at 450 South State Street Salt Lake City, UT 84114-1860, in room S32. For more information please contact the Utah Division of Water Rights at 801-538-7240 or the Attorney General’s Office at 801-538-7227.

What Are the Policies for the Water Right Areas in Utah?

For administrative purposes, the Utah Division of Water Rights divides the state into a number of areas. In a water right number, the digits preceding the hyphen identify the area in which the water right is located. For example, a water right starting with “25-” is located in Area 25, which covers Cache County.

Each area has a page that contain information and policies that are specific to that area. You can view the area information and policies by accessing the area map located here, then clicking on the area that you wish to read more about.

Area pages contain the following information:
Description: explains the boundaries of the area and important characteristics of the area.
Management: describes decrees, proposed determinations, distribution systems, groundwater management plans, compacts, and other documents that relate to the management and distribution of water in the area.
Sources: describes the appropriation policies for the area (i.e., whether the area is open to appropriation of surface water or groundwater), as well as policies related to change applications.
General: describes which newspaper(s) notices are published in, the irrigation duty for the area, and other information.
References: contains links to groundwater studies, hydrologic data, and other studies and publications relating to the area.
Map: shows the boundaries of the area and the cities/towns located in the area.

What Are the Regional Offices of the Utah Division of Water Rights?

To assist the State Engineer in administering the water rights in Utah, the Division of Water Rights has divided the state into seven regions. Each region has an office with a Regional Engineer and staff.

Northern Regional Office (Logan)
Regional Engineer: Will Atkin

Weber River/Western Regional Office (Salt Lake City)
Regional Engineer: Ross Hansen

Utah Lake/Jordan River Regional Office (Salt Lake City)
Regional Engineer: Teresa Wilhelmsen

Eastern Regional Office (Vernal)
Regional Engineer: Bob Leake

Southeastern Regional Office (Price)
Regional Engineer: Marc Stilson

Sevier River/Southern Regional Office (Richfield)
Regional Engineer: Kirk Forbush

Southwestern Regional Office (Cedar City)
Regional Engineer: Nathan Moses

To find out which region you are in, you can reference this map.

For contact information for each regional office, click here.

New Adjudication Team Leader

In July, it was announced that James Greer will be the new Adjudication Team Leader at the Utah Division of Water Rights. Mr. Greer replaces Teresa Wilhelmsen, who was recently named the new Regional Engineer for the Utah Lake/Jordan River Area.

For contact information for Mr. Greer and other employees of the Division of Water rights, click here.

For an explanation of what an Adjudication is, click here.