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Park City in decent water shape after “roller coaster” winter

KPCW

After a rough winter with little snowfall, city staff say Park City’s water reserves are actually looking okay heading into summer.

Utah is still in the middle of a significant drought, with almost the entire state either classified in the “severe” or “extreme” drought categories.

Despite the harsh conditions, water experts say the outlook in the Wasatch Back is not as bad as some people might think.

Park City Utilities Director Clint McAffee said thanks to a wetter than average fall, this spring could leave the city in a better place than it’s been in the past few years.

“We’re, I would say, marginally better than we were last year, believe it or not," said McAffee. "We’re about the same snowpack-wise, but the soil moisture was much better going into the winter.” 

A higher moisture level in the soil means less water gets absorbed into the ground, and instead runs into rivers and reservoirs.

But just because Park City might be doing alright, that doesn’t mean the rest of the state is in the same boat. 95% of the state’s usable water each year comes from melted snow, which Utah didn’t get much of last winter.

After a December that was unusually snowy, even for Utah, the precipitation stopped, with virtually no significant snowfall recorded in the first few months of 2022.

McAffee said that dry spell left Utah reservoirs in a tough spot.

“The reservoirs are almost empty," he said. "They’re worse off in total from where they were last year. When folks drive around and see the empty reservoirs, that means a lot for communities downstream of those reservoirs that rely on those. However, Park City is looking fairly comfortable.” 

By comparison, the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District said it only received 3% of its usual runoff in 2021. With reservoirs worse off now, it could be another summer of water shortages in many of the state's downstream communities, like Salt Lake City and others.

Park City, on the other hand, is aided by the fact that it gets its water from eight different sources; those include local reservoirs and several underground wells and natural springs.

Jordan Clayton with the Utah Snow Survey said, yes, the wet end to 2021 did leave moisture levels higher than last year, but the water shortage in early 2022 was uniquely bad.

“Unfortunately, the roller coaster continued from there and we really bottomed out," said Clayton. "Things were so dry from about January 7th to around March 1st, that 50-day period, that we set, I believe, over 60 records in the state of Utah for how little snowpack and precipitation we received at our snow total site. Unfortunately, the fire hose of weather turned off. We caught up a little bit in March, but not to where we need it to be.”

According to the most recent report published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Utah’s water level is currently at 96% of its 30-year average for a water year. Water years run Oct. 1 through Sept 30. But after dry years in 2020 and 2021, the state would still need to receive over 13 more inches of water beyond normal levels to replenish its reserves.

Clayton said it’s very difficult to recover from such a long stretch of poor precipitation.

Sean Higgins covers all things Park City and is the Saturday Weekend Edition host at KPCW. Sean spent the first five years of his journalism career covering World Cup skiing for Ski Racing Media here in Utah and served as Senior Editor until January 2020. As Senior Editor, he managed the day-to-day news section of skiracing.com, as well as produced and hosted Ski Racing’s weekly podcast. During his tenure with Ski Racing Media, he was also a field reporter for NBC Sports, covering events in Europe.