In order to meet the water demands of an ever-growing population in Southern Utah, Washington, Kane and Iron counties are pursuing the construction of a pipeline that would run from Lake Powell to Sand Hollow Reservior. The 158 miles of pipeline would bring 70,000 acre feet of water to Washington County, 10,000 acre feet to Kane County and 20,000 acre feet to Iron County. The pipeline would probably exceed $494 million in current dollars.

The Lake Powell Pipeline would allow Utah to tap into its unused portion of the Upper Colorado River water, which was defined in the 1922 Colorado River Compact. The Compact divides the river basin into two areas: the Upper Colorado (comprising Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin (comprising Nevada, Arizona and California). Currently Utah is using 74 percent of its annual allocation of 1,369,000 acre feet.