Challenges facing the Department of Public Utilities
In a speech given at the Salt Lake City Public Utilities Committee on December 1, 2011, Director Jeff Niermeyer discussed challenges facing the department in protecting its watersheds.
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Challenges
Director Niermeyer referred to a slide of the Willow Heights lake, which is part of the the property the City acquired about 10 years ago with the aid of a grant from the Lee McCallaster's Conservation Fund. In this view, the proposed SkiLink will be visible across the skyline of the picture. He continued by describing the land ownership and management of the Wasatch Mountains (Wasatch) as a complex process, with the federal government, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City having joint responsibilities, requiring close coordination and common goals. Also, within the Wasatch are various commercial endeavors, subdivisions and mining claims. Most recognize that the Wasatch is a treasure that characterizes what Salt Lake City is all about – providing the back drop to the city, providing water supply, providing economic opportunities in the Salt Lake Valley and within the mountains themselves with ski, dispersed, and wilderness recreational opportunities.
Protecting the Wasatch began with the arrival of the pioneers in 1847. They realized if they were to be a thriving community, water supply would be critical and the watersheds would have to be protected. Protection of the watersheds has been challenging along the way, beginning with mining activities and its effect on the watersheds. Over 107 years ago, a new relationship was formed with the newly established U.S. Forest Service. The City has articles that describe the first head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot visiting the area to develop programs to restore the watersheds and water quality by inclusion in the Salt Lake Forest Reserve. Tree farms were established and these trees planted to re-grow the Wasatch Forest.
In 1914, the City went to Congress for legislation to further protect the watersheds from City Creek to Mill Creek. Again in 1934, as the City continued to grow and rely on the water supplies from Big and Little Cottonwood, additional federal legislation was passed to balance the impacts of mining on the water supply.
In the l950s there were a number of reports on watershed protection and the use of new technology. Up until this time the only treatment of the City's drinking water supply was screening and disinfection with chlorine. However, with rising pollution levels in City Creek, the federal government required Salt Lake City to take action to alleviate the problem or face the loss of interstate commerce privileges. The canyon was closed to public access and a new water treatment plant was constructed to treat the creek water supply.
Over the years the city has developed ongoing strategies to protect its watershed based on lessons-learned. It’s a fact that watersheds can be overused to a point that they become unusable. City Creek was closed for 15 years to allow this resource to recover from overuse. The canyon was literally loved to death.
Niermeyer noted that likewise we have magnificent ski area terrain and back country dispersed skiing opportunities in which many people look at developing businesses or activities within the watershed areas. The department has prepared a slide showing the various proposals that have been floated over the past 25 years designed by yellow dots on the watershed map, which if all were approved would have led to significant development within the watersheds. Without a strong commitment to watershed protection and the balancing effect of federal, state and local jurisdictions, the watersheds would be much different today if all of these projects had been allowed without trying to strike a balance between development and watershed protection.
The department has developed a portfolio of watershed strategies:
- The City Council has continued to support a dedicated watershed land and water rights acquisition fund
- Keep it Pure Program, which launched an education campaign to help inform the public of the importance of the watersheds
- Strong development review program
- Ongoing partnerships and collaborations with forest service, the county and with NGO's government organizations
- Regulations and water quality standards
All of these have served us well in the past, but now there are many more voices that have a stake in the dialog; and all of these voices tend to have agendas that have their rules, their regulations and not all of them are complimentary to each other, in fact some are opposed to each other.
Niermeyer said that as he has looked to the future challenges it raises the question, “Are the strategies that we employed in the past going to be adequate to continue to protect this resource that we so heavily rely on for many aspects of our community?” He said that we are going to continue growing in population and face the impacts of climate change. There will be competing interests in developing versus protection of the watersheds. And finally are we going to apply the lessons learned about the valley’s watersheds, such as the history of City Creek; he asked, “Can we love these resources to death?” The record shows that even though everybody cherished City Creek Canyon, it was basically over used and its environs and water degraded.
Continuing, Niermeyer said that there are multiple layers of jurisdictions and planning documents covering this same area: The Forest Service Plan (2003), the Salt Lake City Public Utilities Watershed Master Plan (1999) and the 20 year-old Salt Lake County Canyon Master Plan that recently was updated. There are varying degrees of funding that occur throughout these agencies. Today, these public agencies are really struggling for funding, requiring prioritizing where they spend their available funds. Decisions are often driven on immediate needs, not for long range planning, so in his opinion this results in a piecemeal approach to planning.
Niermeyer expressed that because of these competing interests, complex regulatory environment and lack of community vision between all of the stakeholders, unlike in the 1980s when consensus was build, it does not exist today. As a result many of these conflicts today are or will end up in court. There has been a fundamental change in the political environment, which can be seen in Congress where there is much debate, but very little action because of polarized positions. As a result of this inaction, the trust in government is at an all time low. Niermeyer believes that local government is closer to the people and more effective in solving problems.
Niermeyer noted that it is becoming more and more difficult to solve problems. Looking to the future, he posed a question regarding how to overcome these obstacles and find different ways to approach these problems. He noted that there is a growing recognition across the West of this dilemma and referred to a paper written on this subject by the ex-mayor of Missoula, Montana Daniel Kemmis, entitled “Collaboration as an Emerging Form of Democracy.” The paper addressed the conflict in Montana between those who wanted to harvest and benefit from the state's resources such as mining and timber versus others representing watershed, preservation and environment interests. These opposing groups were fighting all of these fights to stagnation. A group of stakeholders got together and found areas that they could agree upon and excluded those that they couldn't agree upon. The group then worked on solutions and moved forward on those they could agree upon. What they have found, and there is case after case that is starting to emerge, that if you put people together that have even been mortal enemies, often coalitions can be built to find balance between the competing interests. There have been many good examples of this happening at the local level. However, the process is very challenging. The members have to set aside their strong egos and past positions and be able to hear other points of view. Furthermore,, agreed upon solutions are difficult to implement because they are forced to go through the body of regulatory processes such as NEPA and in our case, Salt Lake City's ordinances and master plans. Also, the process requires the assistance of skilled mediators. However, looking to the future this is a model that we may want to adopt willingly or may be forced into in order to continue to balance the demands on the treasured resources of the Central Wasatch.
Niermeyer said that he had the privilege of working with Mayor Becker. He has spent a lot of time trying to understand and cultivate his own skills in collaborative consensus building. Niermeyer's sense is that the City Council is open to this notion and that all of the voices need to be heard, not just the special interests through a transparent and open government. Now that the Canyons Master Plan goes forward and with the SkiLink issue and its impact on the watershed, Mayor Becker is wondering if this is the time to rekindle a broader dialog including many stakeholders in an effort to come to a consensus opinion -- and if consensus occurs, how to lock it into the regulatory framework. Mayor Becker will be testifying before Congress tomorrow regarding the SkiLink legislation. He has had dialogs with members of the congressional committees and the ski agencies to see if we can put a hold on this legislation, so that it can be looked at in a holistic and thoughtful approach to look at what's good for the community on many levels.
The future of the Wasatch will be our challenge this coming year.