That includes the Big Sand Wash Feeder Diversion and Pipeline, Big Sand Wash Reservoir enlargement and Big Sand Wash Roosevelt Pipeline. The Uinta Basin Replacement Projects will be handed over to the Moon Lake Water Users Association and totals 14.7 acres being transferred and another 980 acres of easements. The transfer of 1,104 acres of federal land involves the Joes Valley and Huntington North dams and reservoirs, Swasey Diversion Dam, Cottonwood Creek-Huntington Canal, Huntington North Service and Feeder canals and evacuation pipeline and Upper Lakes Reservoir. The Emery County Project - which includes diversion dams, canals and other water facilities - will become property of the Emery County Water Conservancy District. If Congress doesn't object to the transfer by passing a resolution disapproving of the move, the projects will be in local hands in 90 days, the Interior Department said. He added: “It’s far past time for the federal government to transfer title to these these responsible and very accountable, very capable local water districts." Lee said that ratepayers in the areas of the water projects have paid for them and “just as a bank should transfer title to the home after the homeowner has fully paid off his loan” the government should be giving the local officials the title to the projects." "For far too long, we’ve had local communities deprived of the right to own and control can manage these projects that are essential to the life of their respective communities.” “But I’m excited to say that we’re now 90 days away from such a major miracle really becoming reality,” Lee said. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who blocked the bill in 2018 and later voted against the legislation that included these provisions, touted: “It’s not every day that the federal government gives land back to local governments.“ "We need more of this kind of local control, and I will continue pushing to return the decision making and management of our natural resources to the Utahns who are closest to them.” “With these transfers, the Emery County and Moon Lake water districts now have the autonomy to manage their own water resources – which is great news for Emery County and the Uintah Basin," said Sen. In total, the federal government will cede more than 1,100 acres as part of the deal, the first transfer under a law passed by Congress in 2019. The projects, one in Emery County and another in the Uinta Basin, will be handed over to water associations in those counties and include dams, canals and reservoirs. The Interior Department will transfer two water projects to local Utah agencies as part of an effort to shed some of the federal government’s holdings in the West, a move heralded by members of Congress from the state but jeered by environmental groups.
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