Who We Are

The Emigration Canyon Home Owners Association (“The ECHO-Association“) is a private organization currently registered with the State of Utah as a dba business entity originally formed in January 2014 to pool information and resources providing a collective remedy for what the Third Amended Federal Complaint of the Emigration Canyon Lawsuit and the pending Emigration Canyon Water Litigation alleged to be over three decades of gross mismanagement of scarce water resources by public officials of the Emigration Improvement District (“EID” aka Emigration Canyon Improvement District aka ECID), Emigration Canyon Mayor Joe Smolka, the Simplifi Company and private land-developers R. Steve Creamer, The Boyer Company L.C., City Development Inc., and the Butler Crockett & Walsh Development Corp.

The Facts

♦  Despite having tested positive since 1995 for all four (4) water sources, in November 2019, EID General Manager Eric Hawkes of the Simplifi Company informed water users for the first time in 25 years that the EID water system had surpassed federal levels for the mandatory reporting of Lead Contamination;

♦ EID’s water sources had previously surpassed federal drinking-water standards for Lead, Radioactive Contamination, Antimony, Turbidity, Bacteria, Sulfates, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) without EID trustees and managers ever having warned its water users and “standby” customers;

♦  Although 760 acres have been recently listed for sale in Emigration Canyon under MLS Nrs. 1531520,  1531527,  1531802,  1578889, 1500208, 1617298, 1638507, 1834120 and 1834121, and Utah Open Lands recently expended $700,000.00 (including $250,000.00 in public funds from Salt Lake Country taxpayers) “to save” 4.6 acres of the Owl Meadow from undisclosed private land-developers;

♦  Financial records however reveal that EID trustees Michael Scott Hughes, David Bradford, and Brent Tippets promised future water service to at least 98 vacant parcels including private land-developers and “EID Advisory Committee Members” R. Steve Creamer, Walter J. Plumb III, Steve Hook to include EID “independent contractor” Bill Cutting;

♦  Despite repeated public denials, in January 2013, EID certified in public loan documents that it intends to provide water service to 900 homes in violation of its own buildout limits established in 1996;

♦  EID reported to the Utah Division of Drinking Water that even with 3 out of 4 large-diameter commercial wells in operation, EID has almost 3x the water source capacity and more than 6x the water storage capacity needed to provide water service to its current customers;

♦  Despite overwhelming evidence of Groundwater Mining of Emigration Canyon’s Twin Creek Aquifer, and the destructive results documented in Alicante, Spain, western and central United States and in Cedar Valley, Utah, the State Engineer Kent L. Jones approved EID’s proposal to provide water service to over 500 new residential units in Emigration Canyon and a “Gun Range and Wedding Resort” as previously certified to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality;

♦  The ECHO-Association estimates that groundwater levels in Emigration Canyon have already dropped 40 – 120 feet in the past 30 years drastically affecting private wells,  drinking-water quality, fresh surface-water springs and riparian vegetation; and,

Our Purpose

 ♦  Relieve Emigration Canyon taxpayers of $6.3 million of federally-backed debt,

 ♦  Protect against Lead, Bacterial, Chemical, or Radioactive Contamination of drinking water,

 ♦  Prevent the continued Groundwater Mining of Emigration Canyon Aquifers,

 ♦  Hold publicly elected officials and private land-developers accountable for the perhaps irreversible destruction of Utah’s birthplace, and

 ♦ Recover monetary damages if an approved member‘s residence is rendered uninhabitable or if an approved member was falsely promised future water service by EID.

Due to the high-dollar value of the pending Emigration Canyon Lawsuit and Emigration Canyon Water Litigation, all members of The ECHO-Association are and will remain confidential to the fullest extent allowed by law in order to prevent acts of defamation, intimidation or retaliation.