Procurements

During the 2023 Legislative Session, the Utah Legislature appropriated $5 million in one-time funds to the Authority for Agricultural Resiliency Pilot Projects. The Authority will use these appropriations to implement pilot projects that include temporary, voluntary, and compensated reductions in consumptive water use through a variety of mechanisms. Pilot projects will be specifically aimed at establishing defensible measurement of conserved consumptive use, shepherding of conserved water to target locations (“demand management”), evaluating market drivers, and testing adequacy of existing water right statutes for purposes of developing scalable drought mitigation programs. Projects may investigate the potential application of Utah 2023 Session Senate Bill 144, which empowers the State Engineer to authorize and distribute conserved water in a qualifying program as confirmed by the Authority. The Authority is committed to using each project to learn about drought mitigation best practices, and to synergize pilot projects with other programs such as AgDRIP to maximize the use of resources and minimize duplication of efforts. Additionally, the Authority will build on existing coordination and collaboration with entities running similar water conservation projects and will expand collaboration through outreach to local water users, water managers, and environmental organizations. The Authority will consult closely with DWRi to ensure defensible water conservation measurement and credit, while maintaining water users’ water rights.