Developers of a proposed bridge across Utah Lake say they won't need federal approval for their project.

Leon Harward of Utah Crossing told the technical committee of the Utah Lake Commission that his company's project is entirely in state hands.

Harward said in a separate interview Tuesday that he expects a letter within a week from the Army Corps of Engineers, saying that they won't be claiming jurisdiction.

The bridge would span the lake from Pelican Point near Saratoga Springs on the west side to about 800 North in Orem on the east side, effectively skirting wetlands impact. Planners with the Mountainland Association of Governments expect 1 million people to be living in Utah County by 2040, creating an enormous demand for east-west travel access. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs are two of the fastest growing cities in the state.

With the federal government out of the way, Harward would need to secure a lease from the state for land at the bottom of Utah Lake to place pillars to support an initial two-lane toll bridge. A second bridge would be built later as traffic demands rose. The project -- priced in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- is privately funded.

Any kind of crossing faces opposition from environmental groups like the Sierra Club, which has temporarily stopped projects before, such as the Legacy Highway in Davis County.

"We do actually think that this requires Corps jurisdiction," said Marc Heileson, western region representative for the Sierra Club. The group is exploring options for challenging the Corps's decision should it relinquish jurisdiction.

The philosophical debate between the two sides is a chicken and the egg tale.

Harward and supporters like Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, say that a booming population is going to need transportation options and that a lake bridge will cut down on future pollution because people can make a short drive across instead of the longer drive around.

"The reality is in the long run this will reduce pollution emissions tremendously," Sumsion said.

Heileson argues the opposite.

"This bridge will skyrocket pollution rather than solve it," he said.

Rather than planning for what he calls "smart growth" with jobs, mass transit and commercial in the same area to reduce auto pollution, developers are planning more of the same.

"The story's already been told. We call it Phoenix," he said. "It's really a land development scheme, not a transportation project."

On that point, Harward doesn't necessarily disagree.

"Once this happens, that west side is going to mushroom," he said. "It's just going to explode."

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