The Mountain Regional Water Special Service District is designing an upgraded treatment plant above Promontory.
Signal Hill is where Mountain Regional pumps water from the Weber River, where it’s then disbursed to more than 6,000 customers in the Snyderville Basin. The patchwork service area stretches from The Colony to the Morgan County line.
“We've got a very large service area and relatively small customer base, so it's difficult for us to maintain and ultimately pay for these large infrastructure projects we're trying to accomplish,” chief financial officer Steve Anderson said at the Aug. 26 Summit County Council meeting.
Mountain Regional can issue bonds to finance construction. The debt will be repaid through customers’ monthly bills.
But the water district will have to borrow $20 million more than expected for the Signal Hill Water Treatment Plant. Cost estimates went up after it received more detailed designs.
What that means is a bigger rate increase for customers, sooner.
Mountain Regional had planned for 3% to 5% rate increases until 2034, when customers would see an 8% to 9% hike to begin paying off the water district’s loan.
Now, district leaders plan to raise rates 7% to 9% in 2027, with annual increases half that size afterward.
The county council voted to allow Mountain Regional to issue the extra water revenue bonds Aug. 26.
Councilmember Chris Robinson thought it wise to lock in interest rates on the bonds now in case rates rise.
“I think [bonding] is only going to get more expensive, and it may get more expensive in interest,” he said. “It's probably not a bad idea to tie this money up, and that you can refinance with impunity at least within a couple of years, in the worst case.”
Mountain Regional will schedule a public hearing in the coming weeks before issuing the bonds. It’s upgrading its treatment plant in preparation for future growth.
Anderson says the current treatment and delivery system was near its maximum capacity in 2025.
More details about the water system's capacity and Signal Hill cost estimates were included in Mountain Regional's Aug. 26 slide deck below. Customers' actual rate increases will depend on how much water they use.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
