SALT LAKE CITY – The Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday the transfer of 790 acres of public land known as the Ashley Springs property to Uintah County.
The land is cultivated as open space to protect the catchment area and its aquifer, which is a source of clean drinking water for more than 20,000 residents of the district.
Ashley Springs is one of the largest springs in Utah, supplying the area with more than 3.4 million gallons of water per day for drinking and irrigation purposes.
However, the area contains significant reserves of phosphate, raising concerns among guides that mining would affect water supplies.
The Uintah County’s land transfer was one of the many provisions in Utah in the massive John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Recreation and Management Act, passed last year and attended by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and senior member the House Committee on Natural Resources.
“Getting this through Congress was a huge boost,” said Bishop. “It was just a relief from the federal government and the attitudes of the Washington staff that you don’t give away land for any reason, even if it makes sense.”
The acting director of BLM Utah, Anita Bilbao, praised the transfer.
“The protection of watersheds and aquifers is critical in this part of Utah and throughout the west,” she said. “We are pleased to be able to complete this transport to ensure that this source of fresh water remains intact.”
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called the transfer a win for Vernal, Uintah County and Utah.
“One of my first actions in the Senate was to co-sponsor and work to preserve portions of the Utah public land package that contained a bill that spearheaded the long-awaited transfer of 790 acres of state to Uintah County,” said Romney. “With the completion of this land transfer comes the realization that our land is best farmed by the communities and people who are closest to it. … I am proud to continue to work to ensure greater local participation in decision-making regarding our country. “
A statement released by the Uintah County Commission said the land transfer, which will be completed in July, means the county will have direct control over its water supplies.
Bishop said these types of land transfers make sense.
“If you turn it over to the county, you can do something valuable to the land,” said Bishop.
This broadcast protects the land and provides benefits to the local people, Bishop said, and could serve as a template for other broadcasts across the state.
Bishop said it was nearly impossible to incorporate land transfers into legislation because it was a bad thing to give state land to local control.
He added that he would have to threaten to kill the land package that was ultimately passed last year if the Uintah County’s Ashley Springs ownership transfer was not included in the bill.
Although the transfer was meant to protect a watershed, he said he still has battles with people in Washington, DC who are “instinctive” against it.
But the congressman, who is leaving his seat in Congress and running for lieutenant governor with Utah gubernatorial candidate Thomas Wright, said there are other packages in Utah where a transfer would have local use and value.
“We can show, package by package, how people benefit from it,” he said. “This is a good sign of what we could do in the future and what we haven’t done in the past.”
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