Municipal and Industrial System

The Municipal and Industrial System (M&I System) of the Bonneville Unit develops and delivers approximately 90,000 acre-feet of water annually to accommodate population and industrial developments in Salt Lake and Utah counties of north-central Utah. Of this supply, about 70,000 acre-feet is used in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area and about 20,000 acre-feet is used in the Orem-Provo area. An additional 14,100 acre-feet of water annually is developed for irrigation purposes in Summit and Wasatch Counties. 

The M&I system’s key infrastructure includes the Jordanelle Reservoir on the Provo River and two major aqueducts, the Jordan and Alpine Aqueducts, which run north from the mouth of Provo Canyon to supply water to communities along the Wasatch Front.

Located in Wasatch County just north of Heber, Utah, Jordanelle Reservoir is formed by a 296-foot-high earthfill dam on the Provo River. It has a total storage capacity of 363,000 acre-feet and spans approximately 3,024 surface acres at full pool. In addition to municipal and industrial water supply, the reservoir provides secondary benefits such as public recreation, flood control for downstream communities, and supplemental irrigation for nearby agricultural areas.

 Municipal and Industrial System Map 

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Map of the Municipal and Industrial System of the Bonneville Unit
Municipal and Industrial System

 

Because Jordanelle Reservoir develops water of the Provo River that otherwise belongs to water users downstream in Utah Lake, a water "exchange" is affected by delivering a supply of water to Utah Lake equal to that withheld in Jordanelle Reservoir. This exchange water is delivered from Strawberry Reservoir via the Diamond Fork System of the Bonneville Unit.  

The Alpine and Jordan Aqueducts deliver project M&I water to users in the metropolitan Salt Lake, Orem and Provo communities. Previously existing facilities, the Olmsted Diversion and Union Aqueduct, located on the Provo River about 14 miles downstream from Jordanelle Reservoir, have been acquired by the federal government to divert Jordanelle Reservoir releases into the two CUP aqueducts. The 21-mile long Alpine Aqueduct ties into the old Union Aqueduct, tunnels through a nearby ridge, then continues in a 5 to 7.5 feet diameter buried concrete pipeline to the Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant in north Orem, Utah. Treated water is then delivered from the plant to north Utah County communities by a continuation of the Alpine Aqueduct, branching reaches, and various other distribution systems.

The 38-mile long Jordan Aqueduct splices into the Alpine Aqueduct upstream of the Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant and delivers raw water to the Jordan Valley Water Treatment Plant, in South Salt Lake County, for service to the west side of Salt Lake County. The Jordan Aqueduct is also a buried 4 to 6.5 foot diameter concrete pipe.

Throughout most of the north Utah County alignment, the two aqueducts occupy the same Right of Way. The Alpine Aqueduct terminates in American Fork, Utah, while the Jordan Aqueduct continues on to Point of the Mountain then up the west side of Salt Lake County through the communities of Riverton, South Jordan, West Jordan and on to Salt Lake City.

Another important feature of the M&I System involves rehabilitating 15 small reservoirs in the high mountain headwaters of the Provo River. Irrigation storage in 12 of the reservoirs was transferred into Jordanelle Reservoir. This improves the operational and recreational aspects of Jordanelle and allows restoration of the 12 high mountain reservoirs for environmental enhancement. The remaining three—Trial Lake, Washington Lake, and Lost Lake — were reconstructed as functioning irrigation reservoirs to serve lands too high to permit service from Jordanelle Reservoir.

 

 

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