I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE…New UTAH TEMPLE Plan Has Opposition

Heber Valley is one of the most beautiful places in Utah. It has incredible views, delicious milkshakes, and a lot of ground water.

The LDS Church has announced a new temple site in Heber and it has a lady from there not happy. She talked to the Salt Lake Tribune. Full article here

"Resident Alissa Haynes said she and other neighbors have concerns about water. Her questions formed after she read a church- funded study suggesting the proposed 200-foot-tall building site is in a flood plain and will require “dewatering,” or pumping out groundwater, so the area doesn’t flood with a multistory new building on top. 

The study suggested the plan could require wells almost 40 feet deep, capable of pumping 500 to 700 gallons of water per minute. That would mean from 720,000 to 1,008,000 gallons per day. The study says builders would need to do that for four to eight weeks to prepare the ground. 

After that first “dewatering” phase, the study says the flow rate should decrease dramatically, but it will still need to pump 150 to 250 gallons per minute, or 200,000 to 350,000 gallons a day, to keep the ground dry enough."

Haynes' point is that the water is going to be shipped out of Heber down the creek into Provo. And the last thing a God fearing Heber-ite wants is to give fresh water to a bunch of Provoans. I understand her concern. It's like Daniel Day-Lewis in that movie. Provo is gonna be drinking Heber's milkshake for years. That's hard to take.

But I think the benefit of having a beautiful temple in the middle of your beautiful valley might be worth the loss of ground water. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water sounds like a lot to you and me, but it's literally less than my wife brings home from Costco every month.

What do you think?