Segment 1: Flooding 2011
On this week's show we will be talking about the water in the hills around the valleys of Salt Lake and the Wasatch front and really about flooding across the state. First we want to talk about a late breaking news development that's occurred since the last time we visited here on the County Seat set.On June 1st, secretary of the interior Ken Salazar wrote a memo directing the BLM to ignore executive order 3310, which directed the Department of the Interior to re-inventory its lands with Wilderness Characteristics. They are not going to persue this initiative any longer from the Department of the Interior and are returning to the status quo, which is in compliance with the FLPMA Law of 1976. This means that any future land designations and management decisions will involve the local counties, state government and any permanent decisions and management decisions will be approved by the congress of the United States. We applaud the Department of the Interior for recognizing that their policy was strained from the letter and the intent of the FLPMA law which was to provide local coordination with the local governments. I'm sure on behalf of all of the counties that often appear on this show their glad to see this development take place. But right now its time to turn our attention to flooding. Three extraordinary things have happened this year to make flooding inevitable along the valleys of the state of Utah particularly along the Wasatch front. One, a record high snow pack, there's more snow in the mountain than there have been in probably recorded history. Item number two, a slow melting season we are already in June and the temperatures are just now starting to warm up. Item number three, the third impact is caused by the threes wettest months ever recorded in the state. So the rains continued to come before the snow melted and the creeks are already full. How are we going to handle that when it all come tumbling down?