Letter: An irresponsible decision on water

Tribune photo by Brian Maffly, Sept. 4, 2018 Sam Plumb inspects the dry creek bed on his family’s property in Emigration Canyon. The creek through much of the canyon has been completely dewatered for the past two months, a sign of Utah’s worsening drought and possibly excessive groundwater pumping to feed hundreds of homes in the canyon east of Salt Lake City. On Oct. 18, Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency, upon the advice of the state drought advisory panel, because of extreme drought conditions throughout the state of Utah.

On Jan. 16, 90 days later, the Department of Natural Resources Division of Water Rights, led by Executive Director Kent Jones, approved the application of…