During the past several years, Southern Utah has grown at unprecedented rates. This growth has come not only from retirees seeking the mild winters and tourists visiting the nearby national parks and recreation areas, but also from young families wishing to take advantage of both quality of life and explosive job opportunities. Growth is occurring rapidly throughout Washington, Iron and Kane counties and soon will stress the ability to adequately cover the water supply requirements created by this growth.

Current water development projects in Washington County, Kane County and Iron County will only be able to meet the growing demand for water until about 2020. In order to meet the water demands of Southern Utah beyond 2020, Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. signed the Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act into law in May 2006, which will eventually take water from Lake Powell, near the Glen Canyon Dam, and transport it to Washington, Kane and Iron counties.

The Lake Powell Pipeline will consist of roughly 120 miles of 66-inch pipe from Lake Powell to Sand Hollow Reservoir and 38 miles of 30-inch pipe from Sand Hollow to Cedar City.

The Pipeline will bring 70,000 acre feet of water to Washington County, 10,000 acre feet of water to Kane County and 20,000 acre feet of water to Iron County. The Pipeline will probably exceed $494 million in current dollars.