Valar Watch · Fact loc-031

Fact loc-031

newrecordconfirmed No State Engineer notice naming Valar: 61 water-right notices in the local paper, Oct 2023 to Sept 2026

2026-09-23 · loc-031 · Utah Division of Water Rights, State Engineer, Valar Atomics, ETV News

Utah Code 73-3-6 requires the State Engineer to publish notice of a water-right application once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county of the source and of use (and on the state's legal-notice site), and the notices set a deadline for written protests. ETV News, delivered to every home in Carbon and Emery, carries these 'NOTICE TO WATER USERS' notices. Its search feed returned 159 of them, from June 2018 to 23 September 2026, 61 published between 11 October 2023 and 23 September 2026 (26 with Emery County applications); all were read. None names Valar Atomics or a nuclear use, and none concerns Section 16, T14S R11E (the Wellington lease) or industrial water near Orangeville for Valar. The Carbon applications are mostly irrigation and canal-company changes along the Price River; the Emery ones include coal, power-plant and ranch uses, and a 23 September 2026 notice lists a Trust Lands gravel-operation well 22 miles east of Castle Dale (protests due 20 October). This fits what Valar says so far: its current water comes through Orangeville's system with shares turned in to the city (loc-017), and no record read shows a state application for that; the 1,000 additional shares are 'in the discussion phase'. It also means no public protest window has yet opened on any Valar water use. The Trust Lands memo says the Wellington site must buy existing rights and move them by a publicly advertised change application (mine-015, mine-017). ETV's search may not return every notice, and the Emery County Progress, which may also carry them, did not answer (sources_not_read); the state's legal-notice website was not searched.

In plain termsWhen someone files an application with the State Engineer to take new water or change an existing water right in Utah, the state has to announce it in the local paper so neighbours can object. We read every such announcement we could find in the local paper back to 2018: none was for Valar. So the big water question, the up-to-1,000 shares and water for a Wellington campus, has not yet reached the stage where the public gets a formal say. Watch the 'Notice to Water Users' column for Valar's name.

Utah Code 73-3-6: Publication of notice of application (amended 2024) (Utah State Legislature, 2024-05-01) primary government “once a week for a period of two successive weeks in a newspaper”
ETV News public notices: 'NOTICE TO WATER USERS' from the Utah State Engineer (search feed pages 1-15: 159 notices, June 2018 to 23 Sept 2026; 61 since 11 Oct 2023) (Utah Division of Water Rights (legal notices published in ETV News)) primary government
NOTICE TO WATER USERS (Emery County applications; protests due Oct. 20, 2026) (Utah Division of Water Rights (legal notice published in ETV News), 2026-09-23) primary government

verified 2026-09-29: Re-read the statute, the latest notice and all 15 feed pages. Count corrected from 62 to 61 for Oct 2023-Sept 2026 (the feed goes back to 2018: 159 notices, none naming Valar). Softened an uncited legal inference about Orangeville's shares.

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