Developments can’t happen in the high desert of Utah if they can’t find water.
And in Summit County, many developers want to tap Mountain Regional Water Special Service District, the area’s largest water company.
But Mountain Regional is looking at some of the developments either approved or in the works, and it may need to find a new water source too.
General Manager Andy Garland says the water company wants to avert a possible deficit by 2040.
“Without additional conservation, without additional source, we are going to have an 800-gallon-per-minute shortfall,” he told the Summit County Council Sept. 16. “And that's not an exact science — because people use, and don't use. These are our best-guess numbers right now.”
Garland was seeking the county council’s guidance as to where to look.
“We can't go to Walmart and buy it,” Garland said. “We actually have to physically find that water. We could consider buying water from Park City, but that's not cheap.”
The system could run a 300-gallon-per-minute surplus by 2040 instead, if customers conserve water.
Conservation, ironically, cuts into Mountain Regional’s bottom line since the company’s revenue only comes from monthly bills and developer fees. That makes infrastructure projects difficult to finance.
There are two other major options to increase the Snyderville Basin’s water supply: drilling wells and pumping from East Canyon Reservoir.
Garland says wells are a financial gamble. East Canyon is a guaranteed financial hardship if Mountain Regional is the first Summit County company to tap it.
“My guess is that's probably going to be a $150 million to $200 million project. And the way that the [Western Summit County Project Master Agreement] was written was: the first person in bears the cost 100%, until someone else comes in and requests water,” he said.
There are several other water companies in western Summit County besides Mountain Regional. Each individual provider has its own water rights, sources and projections about surpluses and deficits.
Mountain Regional’s projections assume some future developments will get added to its system, such as the Kimball Junction project Altus Park City, formerly known as Dakota Pacific.
But Garland says annexing every single pending or approved development would aggravate the projected water shortfall despite increasing revenue.
Mountain Regional is not allowed to levy taxes. County councilmembers didn’t say Wednesday whether that could change.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
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