Welby Jacob Canal Water Efficiency Project

Welby Jacob Water Users Company (WJWUC) was formed in 1987 with the purpose of providing irrigation water to farmers in Salt Lake and Utah Counties. It has a six-member Board of Directors and serves approximately 580 water users. It continues to provide water to farmers, but also provides water to many cities for use in their secondary water systems. WJWUC has two canals, both starting near the Camp Williams military base. The Welby Canal flows north through Salt Lake County. It provides water to agricultural water users and the municipalities of Bluffdale City, Riverton City, South Jordan City, and West Jordan City before it ends in the city of West Jordan, Utah. The Jacob Canal flows south through Utah County and ends in the city of Saratoga Springs, Utah.

The Welby Jacob Canal Water Efficiency Project was a collaborative effort to improve water efficiency in two counties in the state of Utah: Salt Lake County and Utah County. Designed to help conserve water in these counties, this project consisted of the installation of 75 measurement structures—eight of which are placed along the main canal and the rest placed on the turnouts from the canals—with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) equipment along the Welby Jacob Canal system. The SCADA system allows WJWUC to track the majority of the water flowing into and out of their canals which assists them in better managing their water system.

Water deliveries in the Welby Jacob Canal system reach a volume of 29,300 acre-feet annually, but about 6,755 acre-feet is lost through overuse by shareholders. This project conserves around that amount of water yearly by better tracking and management, thus making up for the loss and helping shareholders to save money and resources. Additionally, the project has close ties to Reclamation’s Deer Creek Reservoir, the Provo River, and Utah Lake and has therefore benefitted the endangered June Sucker fish.

 

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