Water shortages plague cities across Utah, Beaver City and Mt. Pleasant impose restrictions

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Cities all across Utah are facing water shortages amidst extreme heat and drought, and Beaver City and Mt. Pleasant City are the latest to impose water restrictions.

Some water officials said that this is one of the worst years they’ve seen, especially with outdated laws standing in the way of solutions.

Additionally, the cost of the repairs needed for water infrastructure across the state is looking steep, according to the Division of Water Resources.

“Looking out 20 years, there’s an estimated 17.5 billion dollars’ worth of need out there,” Candice Hasenyager with the Division of Water Resources told ABC4.com.

Mt. Pleasant City water restrictions

Mt. Pleasant City announced their water restrictions in a social media post on Monday. Currently, the irrigation system for Pleasant Creek Irrigation is shut off in order to allow the pond to refill. When it is turned back on, residents will have to follow water restrictions or face fines starting at $150.

“As long as I had this job, this is the worst-case scenario,” Water Master for Pleasant Creek Irrigation Company Kaden Jorgenson told ABC4.com. “We shut off the pond for a couple of days, we let it fill back up, and we run the minimum amount of water that is coming in to keep bare bones minimum running.”

The pond is a key water source for the area, and it dried up over the Fourth of July weekend.

“The creek coming down the canyon is as slow or as low as we’ve ever seen,” Jorgenson said.

He stated he believes that the holiday had an effect on the amount of water being used. “Between that, the flows dropping, and the heat wave we had this weekend, it was a combination of everything. The pond was already low.”

Once irrigation is back on, watering will be limited to 2 days per week, which will apply to both irrigation water and tap water used for outdoor watering. Residents are only allowed to water during specific times, and they will be assigned days to water based on where they live.

“We are asking everyone to conserve water as much as possible to ensure there is enough for essential needs throughout the season,” the city stated.

Jorgenson told ABC4.com that they have been trying to improve water storage by building a reservoir, but a century-old legal restriction is making that difficult.

“Pleasant Creek Irrigation Company has had a grant for the last four or five years to build a reservoir, but the state won’t approve it because of a 100-year-old decree that allows our water to not be a storage right,” he explained. “We have the money, but until that point, this is normal.”

Until they can build a reservoir, Jorgenson echoed the city in urging residents to conserve water. “Everyone needs to be water savvy,” he said. “We’re living in a desert. The more you can make every drop stretch, the better off we will all be.”

Beaver City water restrictions

Beaver City imposed water restrictions on Tuesday due to “extreme low flows in the river,” according to a social media post. The city encouraged “careful and efficient” use of outdoor watering.

According to the restrictions, watering lawns between the hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. is not allowed, and residents are being asked to reduce how many times they water their lawns to two to three days maximum per week. The city said that they strongly encourage only two days a week.

Beaver City also asked residents to consider reducing garden sizes or not gardening this summer, planting desert, Xeriscaping, or Water-Wise plants, and decreasing water use by setting up a weekly watering schedule with shorter sprinkling times.

The city reminded residents that the cost of any supplemental water use (if the city has to draw on wells) will be passed onto users, and the city anticipates that well pumping will begin this week.

Other water shortages in Utah

Officials with the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District expressed concerns about low aquifer levels as more people have been moving into the area. They explained that aquifer levels have been steadily declining over the past several years, but they are working on a reuse project to help in the long term.

Clearfield City asked residents to conserve water last week due to electrical issues at city water pumps, increased outdoor water usage, and extreme heat. Residents were asked to discontinue any outdoor watering to allow the water level in the tanks to improve, and with those efforts, the water tanks reached sustainable levels once more.

Last month, Salt Lake City asked residents to conserve water this summer in the face of a sharp rise in demand for water, up 5% from the last three years and outdoor watering is up 10%. Salt Lake City’s water system serves nearly 400,000 people in the city and nearby areas like Millcreek, Holladay, and Cottonwood Heights.

Washington County officials also urged residents to conserve water as the summer goes on and firefighters battle wildfires in the area. Water officials said that the region entered the summer in better shape than expected given the drought this year, but it’s important not to let full reservoirs lead to complacency. They added that it’s important to focus on water conservation year-round, not just when drought hits.

ABC4.com reported previously that Utah’s public water systems are not designed to handle wildfires, and experts have been warning residents to be more mindful about conserving water.