Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2009UT125B

Drought Planning Including Carryover Surface Water Storage for a Utah Water Service Provider

Institute: Utah
Year Established: 2009 Start Date: 2009-03-01 End Date: 2010-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $32,178 Total Non-Federal Funds: $35,402

Principal Investigators: David Rosenberg

Abstract: Utah water service providers face periodic droughts that diminish the availability of their surface- and other water supplies and increase demands. Further, many service providers operate integrated and complex water supply systems that draw on surface waters, groundwater, trades and exchanges with neighboring districts, water conservation, and a host of alternative management actions. Yet no standard methods exist to show how these management actions can be optimally, cost-effectively, or economically combined to respond to droughts—for example, how much carryover surface water storage a service provider should retain in “wet” years to use during “dry” ones. This project will develop engineering methods to recommend the cost-effective mix of management actions a water service provider should include to plan for and respond to droughts. As part of the program, we will identify the economical level of carryover surface water storage to reserve for and use during a drought. We will apply and demonstrate application of these techniques for one Utah water service provider.