Utah wants the federal government to resume the process of permitting a pipeline from Lake Powell to St. George.
Utah water officials in January asked for a delay on the project because of jurisdictional questions.
They haven’t yet received a response, and Wednesday attorneys for the Utah Board of Water Resources and the Washington County Water Conservancy District filed a letter with FERC asking it to proceed.
The Spectrum & Daily News reports that state water officials have spent more than $30 million over the past decade readying its proposals for the pipeline, which would carry water some 140 miles out of Lake Powell and across parts of Utah and Arizona to communities in Washington and Kane counties.
The route of the Lake Powell Pipeline is still uncertain, with Utah officials proposing the project go around the Kaibab Paiute Tribe reservation but tribal leaders asking to be included in the project.
Local water managers say the pipeline is needed to keep up with growing demands for water in the fast-growing St. George area, where the population is forecast to balloon from about 165,000 today to more than 500,000 over the next 50 years.