Vital connections.

• Position: Economic growth for Utah brings more utility connections

Vital Connections

Utah Heats Up

Utah's major utility companies actively promote Utah as a place to do business. Economic growth for the state means more utility connections for them.

Mountain Fuel recently installed natural gas lines to 48 new communities of 90,000 people in central Utah, including Ephraim, Richfield, and Salina and to three communities in southeast Idaho. Mountain Fuel's system now includes more than 9,000 miles of distribution lines and 5,680 miles of service lines. The company is also nearing the end of a 20-year project to replace all low-pressure cast-iron portions of its system with non-corroding plastic pipe. And they've converted the majority of its transportation fleet to, what else: natural gas. Since 1987 the company has invested more than $80 million in the expansion of its system.

The new natural gas service to southern Utah has caught the attention of southern California manufacturing companies, according to John Williams, executive director of the Five County Association of Governments. He says the number of inquiries about the area have risen significantly over the last 12 months. "The Mountain Fuel Supply line--coupled with the strong work ethic and our proximity to southern California markets--has resulted in an increase in inquiries about our area," says Williams. He says he is working with 64 southern California manufacturers, firms expressing interest in either additional information, availability of sites, the cost of doing business, utility rates, availability of natural gas, or actually visiting the region. Williams cites recent Los Angeles Times' articles that state one out of every five southern California companies are looking at moving or expanding out of that state in the next five years. "We're now averaging two serious site visits per month. The first questions they ask are about the availability of natural gas and labor."

"Economic development is paying good dividends for our area," says Williams. "The momentum is going our way."

In 1992 Mountain Fuel plans to distribute natural gas to another 10 communities, including Delta, Beaver, and Fillmore via seven feeder lines that will tap into the new Kern River Pipeline, which begins operating this month. The 900-mile pipeline--36 inches in diameter--carries 700 million cubic feet of gas per day from gas-producing fields in southwestern Wyoming, into Utah near Coalville, and through Utah and Nevada to Kern County in southern California.

The...