UTAH COUNTY GENERAL PLAN
CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENT
Utah County is a high desert on the eastern edge of the basin and range formation which abuts the north-south aligned Wasatch Mountain range. Sheltered from the more severe storms by the surrounding mountains, Utah County experiences a high desert climate with cold winters which bring the needed annual precipitation to sustain its communities and farming. Protection of this localized environment is critical to provide for the current and future population of Utah County.
Land within the boundary of Utah County is comprised of 60% federal, state, county and city ownership, including the area of Utah Lake, and 40% in private ownership. Much of the federal and state land is located in the higher elevations of the mountains which provides the needed watershed for the expanding city populations and for irrigation of farm land. Preservation of water and water features, maintaining healthy air quality, awareness of natural hazards, wildlife protection and forest conservation, are all important for the residents and visitors of Utah County.
Water
Two major concerns of water in Utah County are sufficiency and quality. The county was settled and developed because it is located at one of the few sites in the arid west where supplies of water are sufficient for agriculture and development. The county has a number of streams that originate in the local mountains, and these are supplemented by water from the Provo River, Current Creek, and Thistle Creek, which originate outside of the county boundary. The local water supply is also augmented by inter-basin transfers from the Weber River and tributaries of the Colorado River.
Utah County obtains irrigation water from Mona Reservoir in Juab County and Strawberry Reservoir in Wasatch County, and both irrigation and culinary water from Deer Creek Reservoir in Wasatch County. The Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch County also provides municipal and industrial water to northern Utah County. Utah Lake lies within the county boundary but the water is primarily used by downstream owners; local citizens get virtually no use of the lake water except for recreation. Few impoundments exist within Utah County which provide water for local use; those that do include, Payson Lakes, Spring Lake, Salem Pond, and Tibble Fork Reservoir. These are not large impoundments and are important for recreation use as well as water storage.
Springs and wells from underground water supplies are heavily used for both culinary and irrigation in Utah County. The higher quality of the water and the lack of pumping expenses make springs the preferred source of drinking water systems whenever they are available. Most of the larger springs located in the canyon bottoms and foothill areas of the Wasatch Mountains are currently utilized for culinary water supply. Wells are also used by cities to supply water for culinary use and fire suppression with some cities utilizing wells to supply the water needed beyond the amount that can be supplied by springs. Population growth in Utah County will be dependant on additional wells from underground aquifers since little additional water can be obtained from existing captured spring flows.
Unincorporated county property owners should be encouraged to switch from surface flood irrigation to pressurized pipeline irrigation systems, when possible, to conserve irrigation water. Water conservation efforts should also be encouraged for residential landscaping by using timed systems or grasses, shrubs and plants that require minimum amounts of water.
Underground water and spring flow are recharged primarily from the winter snow accumulation in the high mountain watershed areas. It is vital to Utah County that these areas are preserved. Rainfall also adds to the recharge of groundwater, but the annual volume of water contributed by rainfall precipitation in this arid climate is not enough by itself. Mountain watershed areas also provide the runoff that feed the streams and rivers that flow into Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake. This stream and river water is used for wildlife, irrigation and recreation. It has been the ability to capture and utilize water that has led to the development of Utah County from its early pioneer farming heritage to its current urban and intensive farming development. Preservation of both quantity and quality are necessary. The Utah County Planning Commission relies heavily on the State of Utah Water Engineer to control the water rights assigned to properties, and the Utah County Health Department to monitor community water systems and septic facilities, in making their recommendations concerning land use development in the unincorporated area of Utah County.
Air
The same mountain and lake combination that moderates the climate also contributes to the presence of frequent wintertime temperature inversions. Temperature inversions, periods when the coldest air is trapped close to the ground, lock in stagnant air and pollutants which progressively intensify. Inversion periods that produce cold, fog, icy roads, and air pollution can last up to several weeks in Utah County. The layer of hazy pollution associated with the inversions comes from the increasing number of automobiles and their emissions and pollutants from the commercial and industrial uses associated with the growing county population. This layer of haze makes it difficult for sunlight to penetrate to the surface of the ground and resolve the inversion problem by heating the lower layer of air. In such an inversion situation, relief is only available when a weather front moves into the county with enough energy to break the inversion and bring in fresh air and sunlight.
Testing for carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, ozone, and particulate matter has been in progress for a number of years in Utah County. Historically, the county has exceeded air quality standards for carbon monoxide, largely due to heavy automobile use and industrial discharges; and particulate matter, from industry, wood burning stoves, construction disturbance, road dust, diesel engine discharges, agriculture operations, and illegal refuse burning. The periods when air quality in Utah County have been exceeded have been in the winter months and in the county’s urbanized Wasatch Front.
Development on five acre lots in the unincorporated area has not had an impact on the ability to attain county air quality compliance, even though commuting is increased from these outlying areas. The carbon monoxide and particulate matter that is added to the air in these outlying areas are well below the maximum allowable levels.
Factors that have led to reduced air pollution levels during favorable weather conditions in Utah County include the lowering of automobile emissions by a vigorous inspection program; the termination of local steel manufacturing; the option to utilize mass transit during commuting periods; and the restrictions instituted by the State Division of Health on wood burning stoves and fireplaces. The county must continue to monitor, regulate, inspect and find new methods to maintain a healthy quality of air as population, industry, services and vehicles continue to increase.
Natural Hazards
Earthquakes and surface fault rupture The Wasatch Fault is an active fault and geological evidence shows earthquakes have occurred within the last 300 years which have created vertical displacements of 15 to 20 feet in some segments of the fault. Less severe earthquakes have occurred, on average, decennially in Utah County. Surface fault ruptures can damage or destroy buildings and may sever transportation routes and utility and water supply lines, causing additional dangers for fighting fires and restricted mobility of medical and safety personnel.
Ground shaking is the most common hazard associated with earthquakes and exists countywide. This hazard has been partially moderated by the State which has adopted the most recent building code standards. Utah County has a seismic classification of Zone D-1, which prescribes stricter construction standards than required in other parts of the United States which have little or no earthquake occurrence. Only California has a more restrictive seismic classification. Where structures are constructed in areas with a high water table or near a water feature, ground shaking can also cause liquefaction of the soils. This causes the soils to become unstable. Structures may not be shaken apart but will tilt, sink or actually list over on their side; this does not often cause harm to the individual, but the structure usually cannot be saved and must be demolished.
Landslides, rock fall and debris flow Steep sloping ground and an unusual amount of water can result in landslides, mud flows, or debris flows. Certain types of rocks in Utah County, such as the Manning Canyon Shale, have a structural makeup that has a propensity for landslide activity, especially during a period when these soils are saturated from heavy rainfall or snow melt. Debris flows, defined as a mass of mud, rock fragments, soil, and water, moving much like a stream, occur mainly in the cloudburst flood channels of the mountain front.
Rock fall can occur during an earthquake when exposed rocks on steep slopes are dislodged by ground shaking, or as an individual event when broken free from the mountainside by the freeze-thaw regime of winter climate. In either case, large rocks rolling and bouncing down the slope of the mountainside can be damaging and dangerous to those living near the base of the mountains.
Avalanches
The deep snow of the upper elevations in the mountains of Utah County often produces avalanches. Many of these avalanches occur in uninhabited areas and only damage vegetation. Back country winter recreationists can also fall victim to these remote avalanches and are often the trigger for the avalanche since it takes very little disturbance to set them in motion. Avalanches usually follow the same paths each year, but exceptional weather conditions in some years produce avalanches so large they exceed their normal chutes. In this situation, the avalanche may strike the lowland areas and cover roads and damage houses. Unlike other hazards, where the hazard is ever present and available for study, snow conditions capable of producing avalanches are ephemeral and dangerous, and not well suited to careful study. Information on avalanches is minimal for Utah County. Destructive avalanches have occurred in Hobble Creek Canyon, the Sundance area of the North Fork of Provo Canyon, Vivian Park, Slide Canyon, and Bridal Veil Falls in the main part of Provo Canyon.
Floods
Utah County can experience three types of floods: flash floods, riverine floods, and lakeside floods. The flash floods occur when torrential rain delivers water in an upland area at a volume greater than the soil can absorb, when unusually warm spring weather melts the snow pack too quickly, or when a dam, landslide or other obstruction impounding water gives way.
Riverine floods occur on the natural flood plain as part of the normal process where water from high stream flows are stored outside the river banks until the flow diminishes.
Lake side floods on land surrounding Utah Lake are dependent upon how much water is stored in the winter snow pack, the manipulation of the storage reservoirs upstream and the irrigation releases at the outlet of Utah Lake. Dredging of the Jordan River, the outlet from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake, has been used to help reduce flooding along the shoreline of Utah Lake.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has identified the Utah Lake flood plain and several riverine flood plains in Utah County and requires Utah County government to administer special protective regulations in these areas. The FEMA maps show the areas of 100 year and 500 year flooding and have placed those maps in the Utah County Community Development Department office. Within these flood plains, buildings must either meet flood-proofing standards, or have their lowest livable floor elevation certified higher than the maximum flood elevation as shown on the FEMA maps. Where minor flood channels exist that are not subject to FEMA regulations, Utah County requires structures to meet a minimum set back from the stream bank.
Wild land fire
A large percentage of land area within the boundary of Utah County is rural and mountainous with a variety of fuels vulnerable to wild land fire. Vegetation types range from grasses and brush to heavy scrub and timber. Even with the efforts to eliminate accumulated fuels through clearing and controlled burns, most of these areas have large amounts of fuel which can burn violently when ignited. Homes have also been constructed within these wild land fire areas that complicate fire management and control. Protection of natural resources, life and property, and firefighters and their equipment, has continued to add to the cost of fire suppression. Besides the immediate danger to life and property and the loss of vegetation, wild land fire can create secondary concerns of erosion, flooding, landslides, debris flows, water quality degradation, displacement of wildlife and livestock, as well as aesthetic impacts. Utah County annually has wild land fires. The number of fires can be reduced by fire safety education and using common sense during periods of high fire danger. The intensity of these fires can vary due to weather conditions and the abundance of fuel.
The Utah County Fire Marshal’s office provides fire information, education, prevention and investigation throughout the unincorporated area, while the Wild Land Fire division of the County Sheriff’s department provides for the prevention and suppression of wild land fires in the unincorporated private lands and cooperates with the state and federal agencies when wild land fires are initiated on public lands or cross over onto such lands. The adoption by Utah County of the International Fire Code and the Urban/Wildland Interface Area of the Utah County Code has increased the effectiveness of fire prevention and has reduced the risks, costs, and adverse impacts of wild land fire.
Wildlife and Forest Conservation
The tree community in any particular spot of Utah County is a product of climate, soils, land forms, and elevation. Trees constitute the major vegetative type in the county. This is true even though Utah County is a productive agricultural county. The majority are deciduous trees; aspen, maple, and oak, although the tree communities of many cool, north-facing slopes in the county are composed of evergreen fir and spruce. Smaller tree communities found west of the Wasatch Mountains are composed of mostly junipers and pinion pines.
Utah County has few stands that are useful for milling into lumber. Sporadic cuts of deciduous trees, such as cottonwoods, occur to make warehousing pallets, shipping crates, and supports for mine safety. Junipers are often harvested and trimmed to make fence posts. Various woods are utilized for home fireplace heating, and a few softwoods have been cut to supply local sawmills with dimensional lumber. However, the most important use of the areas covered by the tree communities in Utah County is as watershed. Inexpensive supplies of culinary and irrigation water are produced in the mountain forests adjacent to Utah County’s population and agriculture centers and require very little expense for treatment and transportation.
The forested land also produces a crop of browse used for grazing livestock, forage for game animals, and scenic landscape that is important to the recreationist. The tourists that are drawn to these mountains for their beauty and recreation aspects bring important out-of-county dollars into the county’s economy annually.
The extensive oak brush covered slopes of the Traverse Mountains and the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains is a highly fire prone vegetative type. Termed “chaparral” in some studies, the chaparral is also the critical winter habitat for the mule deer population and constitutes the majority of their food source when deep mountain snow force the deer to congregate in these lower elevations. Unlike the forested areas, the high shrub community has no significance for lumber or wood products. Its basic value is for watershed, browse, and scenic qualities.
A variety of animals and fowl live in the habitats of Utah County. Like vegetation, animal and fowl habitat is a result of the surrounding environmental conditions of soil and climate. Mule deer and elk are the most numerous big game animals in the county, and both are avidly pursued by local and out-of-state sportsmen. For both of these species, the size of the population is limited by the quantity and quality of food that can be found in the areas where they winter. Residential development has encroached into these critical deer and elk winter areas resulting in a loss of population as they are driven from their normal winter habitat.
Mountain goat, moose, cougar, bear, and many species of smaller mammals are also found in Utah County. Valley varieties of birds, game birds, raptors, and mountain birds and fowl can be found in Utah County. Golden and Bald Eagle winter nesting sites are plentiful in areas near the shores of Utah Lake. A variety of fish are found in Utah Lake and most all streams, lakes and ponds have native and planted trout. Stretches of the Provo River, through Utah County, are designated as a blue ribbon trout fishery.
Water, air, natural hazards, forest and wildlife, are all environmental elements that must be factored into the planning process. Elimination of any one from land use planning efforts could cause undesired effects to vital resources needed to provide for the many who have chosen to live in Utah County because of these qualities as they presently exist.
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