Cities in the Heber Valley say thanks to residents helping to conserve during the drought, irrigation water deliveries could continue into the early fall.
This has prompted city officials to express optimism that irrigation could continue to flow through the summer.
“We asked people to cut back, and they’ve cut back,” said Steve Farrell, president of the Midway Water Advisory Board. “We’ve seemed to make our water supply extend as long as we can, and we’re just going to have to wait out the rest of the summer to see what happens. But right now, we’ve got adequate water to meet our needs.”
Farrell said the city will be better able to know where it stands with water supply after next weekend. The June 24th holiday is usually one of the heaviest usage periods in Midway.
He said the city’s goal is to continue to deliver water into September.
When Midway announced restrictions on irrigation water use about a month ago, residents had to start watering three days a week.
At that time, Mike Kohler of the Midway Irrigation Company said the city would possibly have to impose even tighter restrictions later this summer.
“The way this is working out, the systems are split enough that we’ll be able to serve everybody. Everybody’s gonna have to work together. I fully expect that in a month it will get much worse,” Kohler said to a crowd of about 150 Midway residents at City Hall.
Last week, Kohler said residents have used irrigation water responsibly, and Midway had no plans for further restrictions.
Heber City engineer Bart Mumford said residents in Heber could also continue to have irrigation water available into the fall.
So far, Heber City has not imposed mandatory restrictions. It has focused on educating the public and asked residents to limit watering to twice a week.
Mumford said the city still might impose mandatory restrictions sometime before the end of summer.
Heber City has tentatively planned a town hall to discuss drought and water usage for the 29th, which is a week from Thursday. Mumford said the city would update its website as details for that meeting become official.