In addition to meeting Utah’s growing demand for water, a major impetus for passage of CUPCA was awareness that prior efforts to mitigate or offset loss of natural resource values lagged far behind construction of CUP water development features or were inadequate when measured against modern environmental standards. The Mitigation Commission is therefore responsible for designing, funding and implementing projects to offset the impacts to fish, wildlife and related recreation resources caused by CUP and other federal reclamation projects in Utah.

Many mitigation projects require completing efforts initially administered by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation and Department of the Interior, now two of the Commission’s most important partners. Other mitigation projects are new mandates included in CUPCA as a condition of CUP completion. The Act requires the Commission to implement these mitigation responsibilities concurrently with completing CUP water development features.

The Commission was established in late 1994 and early 1995. It consists of five commissioners, appointed by the President, and approximately a dozen staff headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under the Commission’s umbrella authority, other federal and Utah state agencies, local governments, universities, non-profit organizations, and the Ute tribe cooperate through agreements with the Commission to implement of a wide variety of ecosystem restoration and wildlife conservation projects in Utah.

Of the approximately $2 billion of federal funds authorized for the entire CUP, the Commission is authorized to spend somewhat less than 10% of that total (approximately $170 million) to carry out the mitigation program. Annual funding depends on amounts appropriated through the Secretary of the Interior as part of the Department of the Interior’s Central Utah Project Completion program. The Commission is limited to using up to ten percent of its annual appropriations for agency administration; the balance is expended for mitigation projects through agreements with its partners.

CUPCA requires the Commission to adopt an annual Mitigation and Conservation Plan that sets out the Commission’s priorities for implementing mitigation measures and programs required by the Act. Each draft Plan undergoes review by the public and the Commission’s cooperating agencies prior to final adoption by the Commission. The first Plan was adopted in 1996, and is revised annually.