At a final public meeting, state adjudication staff reviewed the proposed determination and hydrographic survey for the Provo City South Subdivision and reminded water users that objections must be filed with the Third Judicial District Court by June 18, the presenters said.

The proposed determination compiles state engineer recommendations (SERs) for water rights in the subdivision and initiates a 90-day objection period. Once objections are resolved, staff said they will seek an interlocutory decree from the court.

Chase McDonald, assistant state engineer over adjudication, summarized the adjudication process, saying general adjudication joins all water users within a drainage and the state engineer as parties to litigation to obtain a final, comprehensive decree of rights within that drainage. He noted that major river drainages in Utah are often subdivided for investigation and that the Provo City South area is one such subdivision.

McDonald outlined the three phases presented in the proposed determination materials: an initiation phase (begun summer 2019), a claim-filing phase completed in 2021, and a claim-investigation and proposed-determination phase that produced the proposed determination. He said the proposed determination was published on March 20 and that the 90-day objection period ends June 18.

Staff explained what information each water-right entry in the proposed determination contains: water source and point of diversion, priority date, authorized quantity (volume or flow), water-right or file number, owner of record (the county recorder is the official record), type of right (application, decree, or diligence claim), group numbers for rights with common use, nature and period of use (irrigation season April 1–Oct. 31 in this book; domestic use year-round), and place-of-use tables using PLSS section/township/range and quarter-quarter breakdowns. The presentation emphasized that the owner of record listed in the determination may not match the current user and advised using a report of conveyance to update title.

McDonald described categories that appear in the document: forfeited rights (investigations showing no use for seven years or more, per state statute), invalid claims (claims disallowed because they lack legal basis under state statute), and ownership remarks where multiple owners or percentage shares are recorded. He said the Provo City South proposed determination incorporates prior decrees, including the 1921 Provo River decree, and referenced Utah Code Title 73, Chapter 4 as the statutory authority for general adjudications.

The hydrographic survey map, McDonald said, is a visual record of points of diversion and irrigated acreage used during the investigation; the maps are not filed with the court but will be digitized and posted online. He described the map legend and page format (each page intended to be approximately 2 feet by 3 feet), and that map symbols are color-coded to show rights allowed, disallowed, or abandoned (abandoned refers to the water right being abandoned, not necessarily that a well structure is abandoned).

Several attendees asked questions about individual claims. A resident asked why a claim that appears on the map was not included in the proposed determination; McDonald said staff would address specific cases individually after the recorded portion of the meeting and provided contact information for the public inquiry team. Staff also reiterated that links to the proposed determination, hydrographic maps and the presentation are available on the public meeting information page and that earlier public meetings and recordings are on the division’s YouTube channel.

How to object: McDonald noted that the notice to water users in the proposed determination includes the civil case number and filing instructions and that objections must be submitted to the court within the 90-day period that ends June 18. He invited anyone with specific questions to remain after the recording for one-on-one assistance.

The presentation repeated that the priority schedule matters because Utah water is allocated under the prior-appropriation doctrine; in shortages, the priority date determines who receives water first. Staff also explained that some entries include distribution schedules because they are decree rights and that the alphabetical index in the proposed determination lists owners, points of diversion, water-right numbers and page numbers for reference.

No final court actions or votes were taken at the meeting; staff presented information and answered questions and will proceed with objection resolution and subsequent court filings as appropriate.