Slowing growth may delay or kill Lake Powell Pipeline

New, much lower population forecasts for Washington County are raising questions about whether a planned $1 billion pipeline to carry water from Lake Powell to St. George is truly needed, or should be delayed or even killed. A 2008 state study figured the pipeline was needed based in part on projections that Washington County’s 2040 population would grow to nearly 560,000 and outstrip all other water sources. But new, preliminary projections — tweaked after the 2010 census and slowed growth from the "great recession" — now forecast the 2040 population at only 314,000, or 56 percent of the original. Salt Lake Tribune