The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is a state institution, but its primary function is collecting money for the U.S. Bureau of reclamation, to pay for the Weber Basin Project. Different classes of water users pay markedly different fees for identical Project services. More than half of the water developed by the Project is not used consumptively, yet supply facilities continue to be built in the Basin because they are less expensive to their owners than prices charged for the underused capacity of the Project. Paradoxically, some Basin residents are bitterly resentful to both the District and the Bureau, claiming that water rights formerly their own have, by means of the Project, been stolen. That is, both the enemies and the proponents of the Project adhere to the Western orthodoxy that water is scarce and drought imminent. The principal difficulty of this investigation lay in identifying the nature of the problem, for the situation seemed full of contradictions. Consequently, the primary contribution of the dissertation is an explanation of Basin circumstances that accounts for arresting observations without inconsistency or contradiction. The most important hypotheses are, therefore, empirical, or historical and institutional. Economics, according to Richard T. Ely and Frank H. Knight, is a set of principles concerning what ought to be, not empirical descriptions of what is. Consistent with that perspective, once the nature of the problem is clear, applications of economic principles is a prescriptive judgement of how the problem may be resolved. The most important empirical hypotheses are as follows: Water is not scarce in the Weber Basin; neither are storage and conveyance facilities. All are abundant, even redundant. Nevertheless in combination with certain institutional arrangements and sustained propaganda campaign, this very abundance contributes to persistence of the attitude that water is scarce. Redundant facilities thereby encourage even more unneeded development. What appears on first examination to be a case of misallocated water resources by discriminatory prices, turns out to be a problem of distributing the burden of paying for excessive, unwanted public works. Water itself is a free good in the Basin. Actual distribution of the repayment burden is partly ideological and partly pragmatic; partly a political choice and partly a bureaucratic decision; partly a manifestation of agrarian policy and partly what the traffic will bear. If water is free, it is not an economic good, and not a subject for economic analysis. The Basin has an ample water supply, but water may nevertheless be locally and periodically scarce. The water problem is therefore one of conveyance and timing. Control of timing requires storage. Conveyance requires energy, as well as aqueducts. In the Weber Basin, conveyance energy may be either the controlled flow of falling (mountain) water, or electrically powered pumps tapping abundant groundwater reservoirs. The water development problem is therefore, an issue of alternative capital facilities for the control and delivery of water (itself abundant). Efficient resource allocation in water development is consequently relevant at the investment level; it is not a matter of pricing water. In this case, the major investment decisions have already been implemented, and the problem is one of evaluating distribution of the repayment burden. The relevant economics literature is principles of equitable taxation, and of public utilities' pricing. Application to the basin situation produces a conclusion that present arrangements are as equitable as could be devised. Further redundant investment (inefficient use of resources), however, could be avoided if the State Engineer's Office took a harder line on requests to drill new wells. The information provided in this work could be the basis for making such a program popularly acceptable.

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No description available.

The study was designed to test the genetic theory of soil development of two soils derived from different geological material, but developed under conditions of similar climate , topography, biological activity, and age. An attempt wa s made to relate the soils charac teristics to their present classification . Parleys and Mendon series which developed from Bonneville and Salt Lake Formation , respectively, were selected for that purpose. Along the east side of Cache Valley, two pedons representing each of the studied series were sel ected to have si~ilar soil formers except for their parent material. Evidently, the se studied soils have been developed from di.ff erent heterogenous sediments . Mendon soils have been developed from Salt Lake Formation to at l east 51 em depth, ~vhereas, the solum horizons are a tt ributed to the Bonneville Formation. The Parleys soil seems to be n.J ·inJy Jevel(,)ped from Bonneville Formation. But the upper solum horizons are rrobably inte rlaye red with fine deposits of Holocene age . Those soils which de rived from differe nt geologica] dcposi ts sl!mv .J high degree of similarity between them. Heterogenlty and the nature of the soil parent mat e rial, and similarity of their climatic and developmental conditions are believed to be the major causes to inhibit many genetic variables between them. In Northern Utah, the Mendon soils are classified as Calcic Pachic Argixerolls , at the subgroup level. This study has shown that most of the Mendon pedons do not have a Pachic epipedon. Therefore , these s tudi ed soil s could he gr ouped toge ther in one subgroup. The result is Calcic Argixerolls in fine-silty, mixed, mesic family. Re-examining Mendon series in Cache Valley and reclassifying them on the basis of Pachic epipedon would be an interesting Subject for further study.

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No description available.

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Redhead duck (Aythya americana) nesting and habitat change was studied in Knudson Marsh, Utah, in 1974 and 1975, and compared with earlier studies from 1950 and 1955 on the same marsh. Water conditions in 1975 were found to be similar to those in 1950, both years of favorable habitat, yet there was a decline in numbers of redheads from 500 pairs in 1950 to 50 pairs in 1975. The number of nests found also declined from 151 in 1950 to 49 in 1975. Water conditions were poor in 1955 and slightly more favorable in 1974, but there was a decline from 95 pairs and 49 nests in 1955 to 50 pairs and 23 nests in 1974. Success of active nests was greater in the present study than in 1950, but hatching success in successful nests was greater in 1950. No appreciable change in the vegetational composition of the marsh was detected between 1950 and the present study.

The management of the home has been a central component of Home Economics since the early 1900s. It is, however, an enigmatic behavior that has not yielded easily to research. Recognizing that meal provision and food consumption by families incorporate management processes and occur on a regular and frequent basis, it was thought that it would be possible to focus on meal management as a step toward understanding resource management. Using time diary and questionnaire data collected in Utah as a part of Regional Research Project S-206, the objectives of this study were (1) to identify variables which may predict the management strategies and time expenditures of meal preparation in two-parent, two-child Utah families, and (2) to assess any changes in current meal patterns in two-parent, two-child families with those reported by Peterson (1979) in a comparable 1977 study. Guided by the Deacon and Firebaugh (1988) family systems perspective, stepwise multiple regression was used to identify predictor variables. It was found that homemaker's education was a statistically significant predictor of shopping frequency(+), frequency of use of a microwave oven(+), number of meals eaten together(+), and homemaker's time in food preparation and dishwashing (-). Seven additional variables, including urban/rural residence, homemaker's hours of employment, age of oldest child, age of youngest child, homemaker's age and a mean score on homemaker's self-reported management skills, were statistically significant predictors of selected management strategies and time expenditures in meal preparation. Decade comparisons revealed few changes of practical significance in meal patterns. The findings of the study were used to suggest hypotheses for further research in family resource management. / Graduation date: 1992