We’ve been hearing about it for years: The Lake Powell Pipeline.

It’s right up there with, Killer Bees are moving north from Mexico, and Montezuma’s Gold is buried in Kanab.

But last week something solid finally happened that will move the Lake Powell Pipeline one step forward on its long and arduous journey through a jungle of red tape.

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accepted the state of Utah’s application to construct a pipeline that will pump water from Lake Powell to St. George, Utah, 140 miles away.

Under the current proposal the pipeline will pump water from Lake Powell approximately 50 miles northwest to a high point located inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  From that high point the water will flow downhill through six hydro-electric turbines and empty into the Sand Hollow Reservoir, located a short distance east of St. George.

The Division of Water Resources estimates the project will cost between $1.1 to $1.8 million dollars.

The Lake Powell Pipeline, as it will be called, will also supply water to 12 other southern Utah communities, in addition to St. George. The entire length of the pipeline, as currently proposed, will be buried underground.

Pumping stations will be required along the pipeline to move it from Lake Powell to the high point in the Grand Staircase. The cost of moving water uphill is expensive. But, from the high point to the end point the water flows downhill. It’s along this portion of the pipeline that the Division of Water Resources plans to install six hydro-electric stations, which will capture the energy produced from the down-flowing water to create electricity. The electricity can then be sold to an electrical utility to offset pumping costs. The information given from the Division of Water Resources last week did not specify to what agency that energy would be sold, nor how the transmission lines would be connected.

Utah officials filed their permit request with FERC more than two years ago. FERC’s approval of the application last week is only the first of many hurdles the pipeline still faces if it reaches completion.

The 140 mile pipeline will pass through federal, state and private land. Before construction can begin, environmental impact studies have to first be completed. Most, if not all, of them are already under way.

The second obstacle the Division of Water Resources will have to overcome is the management and permitting of six hydro-electric stations. Official with the Division of Water Resources said that they had expected that FERC would also be the lead federal agency on the entire project, which would have mainstreamed the permitting and approval process.

But when FERC tentatively approved the pipeline last week, the approval also included language which suggests that FERC may not have jurisdiction over the six hydro-electric sites along the route, nor the entire length of the pipeline and its pumping and water storage stations. Determining which agency does have jurisdiction is expected to delay the process further.

This could shift the jurisdictional burden onto the state of Utah, which would require them to navigate reviews from numerous federal agencies, including the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, which will force additional work onto the Division of Water Resources.

The Lake Powell Pipeline has already cost Utah taxpayers $30 million so far.

In a statement released last week FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller said FERC had assumed it would not take jurisdiction over the entire water project, but only the hydro-electric turbines.

Despite the obstacles that still lay before them, Eric Millis, director of the state (Utah) Division of Water Resources said, “This is a major milestone toward meeting southern Utah’s need to diversify its water supply and develop additional resources to meet anticipated demand. Permitting a water project is a lengthy process and this is a significant step.”