The
Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission is an Executive
branch agency of the federal government. The Commission was authorized
under the Central Utah Project Completion Act
of 1992. The Act set terms and conditions for completing the Central Utah Project, which diverts stores
and delivers large quantities of water from numerous Utah rivers to meet
the needs of central Utah's citizens.
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.
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