The Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) started construction on a reservoir near Toquerville in November. Dry Wash Reservoir in Ivins and Graveyard Wash Reservoir in Santa Clara should be built between 2024 and 2028. Right now, Dry Wash Reservoir is expected to start construction first, in 2024. But which goes first keeps changing.
So, how does Dry Wash Reservoir fit with our community vision? What will we put in the reservoir? How clean is that water? Who will use the water? Will the reservoir become a new playground? What can we do about blowing dust every summer and fall as the reservoir level drops? What about problems created by gnats and no-see-ums? And tamarisks? What about costs? Is it a done deal?
This article addresses these questions. But it also highlights problems we need to solve now, before the reservoir starts construction. Before it’s too late. This article is more than twice as long as my normal posts. But this is a very important and complicated issue. If it’s going to happen, we only get one shot at doing it right. Please read the article and then share your ideas with me in an email or the comment section at the bottom of the page.
Wants & Needs
Dry Wash is a naturally pristine area in Ivins. More than 45 years ago William Carma & Associates, the original developer of Kayenta, planned for the wash and surrounding area to remain a natural open space for public enjoyment. Terry Marten has consistently continued that vision since then.
The Ivins General Plan acknowledges the importance of the washes in Ivins, including Dry Wash, saying they are “important as visual open space, wildlife habitat area and recreation corridors.” In last year’s General Plan Survey, 81% of the respondents made it clear that open space is important to them.
Unfortunately, neither developer owned the land, although not for lack of trying. And the City doesn’t own the land. It’s in the hands of the Washington County Water Conservancy District. Woulda, coulda, shoulda isn’t helpful at this point.
The open space vision is beautiful. I can’t imagine there is anyone who wouldn’t want that. But life is messy. We must continually balance needs and wants. Needs are necessary for life. Wants improve life.
We want open space. We need water. WCWCDs 20-year plan published earlier this year finally dropped the expectation of water from Lake Powell and replaced it with more aggressive expectations for conservation benefits and secondary water. Both the draft Ivins Water Conservation Plan and WCWCDs 20-year plan show we don’t have enough water to meet our needs without secondary water.
What Will We Put in the Reservoir?
Dry Wash Reservoir would contain “secondary, or reuse water for outdoor irrigation, including agricultural and residential watering. The St. George Water Reclamation Facility collects the wastewater from Ivins, Santa Clara, St. George, and Washington City. It treats the water sufficiently to discharge it downstream in the Virgin River.
But it can also send that treated water to its Reuse Plant which is a separate and additional treatment process after the conventional wastewater treatment that brings water quality up to irrigation quality. That is where our secondary water will come from. Using secondary water this way frees up high quality culinary water we’re now wasting on our grass and plants. It’s crazy to use culinary water the way we’ve been doing it. We live in a desert.
Right now, the Reuse Plant only operates from about March to October, so most of the wastewater is just discharged into the Virgin River after the initial processing. That’s because we don’t have anywhere to store it. That’s where the reservoir comes in. Overall, it treats only about 2,000 acre-feet a year, but it can treat close to 12,000 acre-feet a year. And if expanded, there’s a lot more wastewater coming in that could be reused.
We already have a pipeline that runs through Ivins and Santa Clara, from Gunlock to St. George. And there is a pipeline from Bloomington to Santa Clara. So, to use the reuse water, we just need a place to put it.
Dry Wash Reservoir is one of the places to put it. although the Ivins City Council authorized a reservoir with up to 1,900 acre-feet of water, the current plan is for the reservoir to hold about 1,500 acre-feet of water when full. Then it would be drained down during the summer to a “conservation level” of about 300 acre-feet.
In addition to getting water from the treatment plant, the reservoir will also get water from the Gunlock Reservoir, at least in wet years. 2023 was a wet year and the Gunlock reservoir is almost full. That doesn’t give us much room to capture spring runoff. If we had another reservoir, WCWCD would move water from Gunlock right now so Gunlock can capture more of the spring runoff rather than send it all downstream.
How Clean Is the Water?
The water from the treatment plant that will fill Dry Wash Reservoir is classified as Type 1 Reuse Water by the Division of Water Quality. That means it is okay to come in contact with humans and be used for residential irrigation, but not for drinking. To be technical, it contains about 1,100 parts per million (ppm) of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), compared to drinking water at about 500 ppm.
That’s not the right comparison though. We’re not looking to drink reuse water. (Not yet anyway.) So, let’s compare the reuse water with other secondary water sources currently being used for irrigation throughout the county.
Scott Taylor, St. George’s Water Services Director who oversees the treatment plant told me, “The plant’s reuse water is the best secondary irrigation water that there is, aside from Gunlock water. Much of the secondary irrigation system is fed from the Virgin River, which is much higher in TDS (like 3,000 ppm) and is often laden with silt.”
He goes on to say, “The reuse water is much better irrigation water than the Virgin River or any of our secondary irrigation groundwater wells. We have some wells in the Sunbrook area that are about 2,500 ppm TDS. I will say that our parks department and golf courses would love to have straight reuse water, rather than Virgin River water or some of our groundwater wells.”
Treating and storing secondary water as a form of reuse conservation is being utilized by water districts serving communities experiencing water scarcity and shortages across the country and beyond. It works. And the wave of the future is to go further. Two weeks ago, California became the second state to allow agencies to purify wastewater and turn it into tap water.
Who Will Use the Water?
The plan is to fill the new reservoir in the winter and spring and draw it down to a “conservation level” during the summer months, sending the water wherever it’s needed anywhere in the county. Right now, Ivins isn’t ready to use reuse water for outdoor irrigation in residential neighborhoods because we don’t have a delivery system in place. Even so, the benefit to county residents (and indirectly Ivins residents) is to use this additional, stored reuse water to displace precious drinking water for irrigating grass and plants.
Homes built in Ivins after 2000 have secondary water lines ready to accept reuse water, but there’s no city connection from one subdivision to another. So, we can’t get reuse water from a reservoir to anyone’s home yet. We are using culinary water for everything. Not a wise move in a desert. Especially since outdoor water use consumes about half of all our culinary water.
Dry Wash Reservoir creates immediate benefits. It adds at least 1,200 acre-feet of reuse water a year. That’s if we just fill it once a year. If we recharge it more often, it could be the source of a lot more reuse water. That water can be used outdoors, freeing up all that culinary water we’re wasting outdoors for indoor use. It can’t be used in Ivins right now because we’re not hooked up. But it can be used elsewhere.
One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. According to Chuck Gillette, the Ivins Public Works Director, we used 182 gallons of water per resident per day in Ivins in 2022. Based on that, 1,200 acre-feet of reuse water from the reservoir frees up enough culinary water to meet the needs of close to 6,000 people. That’s if we fill it just once a year. And that’s if we stop doing better each year on conservation.
WCWCDs intricate system of pipelines lets water move anywhere it’s needed. Dry Wash Reservoir water can end up watering lawns in St. George or the Shivwits Band of Paiutes soccer field.
In return, Ivins might tap into St. George’s culinary water from its Gunlock wells if needed. That’s an important option for us because our main source of culinary water is a pipeline from the water treatment plant at Quail Creek Reservoir. That plant is getting water from both Quail Creek and Sand Hollow reservoirs. And the pipeline is also getting water from wells around Sand Hollow Reservoir. The problem is, only so much water can be pushed through that pipe.
But a reservoir in Ivins also creates problems. So, we should be working on eliminating or at least minimizing those problems now. It will be too late once the reservoir is operational. Here are the problems I’m aware of.
Ready For Beach Blanket Bingo?
Ivins residents are concerned about a reservoir becoming a nuisance from crowds of people, from who knows where, descending on it for recreation. Residents don’t want this reservoir to become another destination fun park, like Fire Lake Park. Think summer teen beach movies.
Fortunately (and unfortunately) Ivins City, not WCWCD, will oversee management of the land around the reservoir. The city council already indicated it won’t be used for recreation, beyond perhaps hiking and fishing, as the City Council resolution in 2021 stated. But just because the city said that in a resolution doesn’t make it happen. We need a bulletproof management plan.
The Problem, My Friend, Is Blowin’ in the Wind
Another problem is dust and sand blowing from the reservoir. Nothing is finalized yet, but Wayne Pennington, an Ivins resident who is a geophysicist and a former Dean of Engineering calculates that the reservoir would shrink from 67 acres when full in the spring to just 20 acres each fall. That leaves 47 acres of exposed, dry reservoir bed.
Winds from the west and north will blow dust and sand from that bed across Ivins. That dust may contain material that remained in solution through the treatment plant, such as some chemicals from pharmaceuticals or other products.
To put the numbers in perspective, Wayne pointed out that 47 acres is almost 30% larger than the existing Ivins Reservoir at Fire Lake Park. He also calculated that it is roughly equivalent to several city blocks, such as 200W to 200E and Center St to past 100N.
To help minimize the blowing sand and dust problem, WCWCD is looking at adding gravel along the shore and excavating some shallow areas of the reservoir so less area will be exposed. Will that eliminate the problem? We need to get involved as a city and come up with the best possible solution to this problem. Because once the reservoir is built, it will be the city’s problem.
This Is Gnat Desirable
…or Yes You Can Have Too Much Protein
And then there are mosquitoes and gnats, problems the city will have to deal with. There’s already an effective program in place to deal with mosquitos, through the Southwest Mosquito Abatement & Control District (SMACD). The District treats mosquitoes at the Ivins Reservoir and throughout the county.
Sean Amodt, SMACDs Administrator, told me he has been working with WCWCD on the plans for the reservoir to make sure that it doesn’t create additional problems. In 2024 his team will trap in the area around the proposed reservoir to better understand what is out there. He also said the Shivwits Band of Paiutes is also starting a program that will help control that area.
Gnats, including no-see-ums (a type of gnat), are more troublesome. I contacted some residents who live close to the Ivins Reservoir to find out how bad the gnat problem is. They all told me it’s bad.
Here’s what one resident said: “The gnats are awful from late spring through late fall. We cannot sit outside, especially in the evenings, unless there’s a pretty strong breeze. They form in tall swarms that can be several feet tall. When you look from our house to the reservoir over the sage brush all you see is this wall of swirling flying gnats. There’s no way to open windows in the evening because they fit through any screen.”
Sean told me that “gnats develop in soil at the base of trees, not water, but they like moisture. Chuck Warren, president of Desert Preservation Initiative, told me that if tamarisk isn’t removed completely from the area around the reservoir, this invasive tree will take over the shoreline.
An invasion of tamarisk will make the gnats happy. Chuck added that this isn’t a one-time effort. Tamarisk is more persistent. A long-term management plan is important to prevent tamarisk from getting out of control.
After emerging as adults, they will fly miles for a blood meal if needed. With the moist soil this past year from the snowpack, gnats were in abundance. They would be attracted to the moist environment of the reservoir, but they don’t need it for development.”
He goes on to say that “the only effective treatment would be a nightly adulticide treatment. It would be effective, for each night, but would have to be reapplied each night. This would be expensive for product and manpower. Also, treating the ground around the area would be just as costly. There really isn’t a good solution for gnats other than a good repellent.”
Annoying as they are, biting gnats are an essential part of the web of life in Southwest Utah. Birds, bats, fish, lizards, and other insects depend on gnats as a food source.
Why Not Keep the Reservoir Full?
The treatment plant is not operating anywhere near capacity. So instead of simply filling the reservoir once a year then draining it down over the summer, why not periodically refill it? That would minimize the blowing dust problem. This seemed like an “aha moment” until I spent more time on it.
The first problem is that it costs money to pump water uphill from the treatment plant in Bloomington to Ivins. It’s about $1 for 1,000 gallons. That doesn’t sound bad until you start multiplying. It works out to $326 for one acre-foot. So, refilling an extra 1,000 acre-feet each year would cost $326,000. Who will pay for that?
The second problem is one of the goals of the reservoir is to be available as a place to put spring runoff from Gunlock. If we keep it close to full all year, we lose that opportunity. We lose that high quality runoff water.
Do We Have a Choice?
Can we simply say no to the reservoir? In December 2021 our city council passed a resolution for WCWCD to “take all steps necessary to acquire all land necessary to construct the negotiated sized Dry Wash Reservoir…”
In addition to that, the Water Conservancy District Act (Utah Code 17B-2a-1001) gives WCWCD a lot of powers, and even more powers as a “special district” (Utah Code 17B-1-103), which, under state code, is a type of “limited purpose local government entity.”
So, what does that mean? Special districts have the authority to exercise eminent domain to take land for their needs. But Jordan Cullimore, the Lead Attorney at the State’s Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman, told me, “They must follow a municipality’s land use regulations. That means WCWCD needs to go through the same approval process as any other landowner would.”
He went on to tell me that if the zoning doesn’t allow for reservoirs in the zone in which the land is located, “the district would need to petition the city to change the zoning to allow it, and the city could say no to the request if the city determines such zoning isn’t needed or doesn’t benefit the public.” Both the current land use and zoning for the reservoir area are low density residential. That use does not allow a reservoir.
The only land use in Ivins that allows a reservoir is “Park” which is the land use at Fire Lake Park. Given the concern about the reservoir turning into a recreational magnet, “Park” doesn’t seem like the right land use to use. For a reservoir to happen, we either need to create a new land use and zone to accommodate a reservoir or designate a reservoir as a conditional use in a zone we already have, like Commercial with Light Manufacturing (CLM).
By making a reservoir a conditional use, WCWCD would need to go through the Conditional Use Permit approval process to get a permit. Mr. Cullimore points out that, “In that case, the city may only deny a Conditional Use Permit if the city, in light of standards outlined in the city code, identifies reasonably anticipated detrimental effects associated with the use, and makes a finding, supported by evidence and on the record, that there is no way to mitigate the detrimental effects with reasonable conditions.”
I don’t think it’s possible to show convincingly that the reservoir is not needed or doesn’t provide a public benefit. I also think most of the “reasonably anticipated detrimental effects” can be mitigated. At least the ones I’ve researched for this article. But we won’t know that until we take time to work on the problems and identify solutions. I believe we need to do that now, before it’s too late.
Please share your ideas with me in an email (Mike@MikeScott4Ivins.com) or the comment section below.
Note: There are a lot of good comments and questions being posted below. Thank you. I am not ignoring them. I will share the ideas and concerns with the Mayor, City Council, WCWCD, and our legislators and work to get answers to all the questions.
I am concerned about the money Ivins City (Ivins residents in reality) will be taking on for maintenance without any benefit of reuse water and lower water costs for us. Also the cost to deepen the reservoir surely is less than building damn and buying more land. Ivins can control growth of city by stopping approval of more zoning changes. Especially those that increase density by more than 20%.
All of these comments make great points. However, none actually address the most critical issue facing both Ivins and every other community in this area. When are we going to get realistic about anticipated growth? If we don’t have the water for lots of growth, why are any of our communities still planning for nearly (or absolutely) unlimited growth. If California can say no to growth, considering all of those moving from there to here; we should be able to say “no”, too!
Dear Councilman Scott.
First, I sincerely thank you for your excellent analysis of the Dry Wash situation. That said, I think you missed the critical aspects of functional and aesthetic design of the facility. If Ivins allows WCWCD to design, construct and operate the facility without conditions, they will no doubt design, build and operate in their usual fashion. It is clear from simple observation of Sand Hollow, Ivins, and Gunlock reservoirs that unless we (Ivins) place conditions on the rezone, WCWCD will create an ugly utilitarian facility without even a thought about its aesthetic or health impact on our community. Without conditions we can expect the eastern gateway to our city to be the ugliest, most visible quasi-public structure between Gunlock and Sand Hollow. If they add their usual boneyard of old pipe, etc as they have at Sand Hollow/Dixie Springs it will be worse. Without conditions we can expect the operation of the facility will optimize WCWCD ideas about water without any regard to aesthetics (for example, their current idea is to create a larger than necessary dust-prone, chemical laden wasteland of dead shoreline for much of the year).
Without conditions, WCWCD will regularly spray both faces of the entire dam with a powerful defoliant as they did at Gunlock in December on a day with 20 mph winds. Without conditions, WCWCD will do the minimum pollution testing of chemical laden dust required by federal law and that isn’t much. Without conditions, WCWCD will maintain water levels to optimize water availability without regard to dust, bug or invasive plant issues.
Further, since our city has agreed to “manage” the reservoir area, without conditions we can expect WCWCD to pay little or no attention to a design that makes it easy or even possible for us to do so. Nor will they think about what Ivins maintenance crews will need to control dust, bugs and water loving invasive trees like tamarisk and poplars. And once the deal is done, we can expect zero money from WCWCD to cover our maintenance costs. One response to your analysis indicates pumping costs alone will be north of $300K/year but I will wager that the facility P&L doesn’t include a dime to cover our city costs.
This is the problem with getting the cart before the horse. When the City council voted in 2021 to “…express its desire that the WCWCD take all steps necessary to acquire by condemnation the land necessary to construct a reservoir…”, it was just a first step. The land is not zoned for this industrial use and a rezoning process has not even begun. It is in the rezoning process that citizen input is gathered, that foreseeable problems are discovered, and where rezoning can be conditional on mitigating or eliminating anticipated problems; it is our version of an Environmental Assessment. Instead, we seem to be drifting into a situation where WCWCD expects Ivins to rubber stamp an 11th hour rezoning request without any conditions and without any possibility Ivins can or will say no to rezoning. We are setting ourselves up for trouble since the required public hearings may arrive with a predetermined outcome.
Finally, the rezoning process is the only leverage we have to get the reservoir we want. Now is the time to understand the likely problems and make rezoning conditional on eliminating or minimizing them.
I second what several commenters have already pointed out: one cannot neglect evaporation loss, someone should actually model this realistically, and relate it to the total cost of getting that amount of water into the reservoir in the first place. This cost is not just the pumping cost, but also the two phase treatment itself. Once that number is computed, the additional cost of going deeper and reducing the surface area may not seem so prohibitive, in particular since that added cost can be amortized over multiple years. A reduced footprint would also make covering the reservoir more feasible. All that aside, I would certainly like to see a more quantified impact statement of what we will be breathing in in terms of particulates.
Mike,
Thank you for the time and insight you provide. Hopefully more council members will listen to you.
The cost of $1 to pump 1000 gallons of water is surprising. Can your source provide the engineering calculations that were used to arrive at that figure.
As others have stated, the bugs are very bad around Fire Lake. When near the water there are swarms of bugs, you don’t dare stop. Ivins is unable to mitigate this problem. Noise is another issue that continues.
The Environmental Assessment (EA) published August 2004 describes 3 stages of construction. Stage 1 construction is based on a settlement between the City of St. George and the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indian Tribe. Under the settlement the City St. George is to provide Shivwits 2,000 acre-feel of water annually. Stage 1 consists of “construction of the pipeline, facility upgrades, two pumps, and a storage tank”. Has St. George completed and paid for Stage 1 as they agreed to do? Clearly a portion of the piping is not complete. Is there a storage tank or will the Dry Wash Reservoir instead be used for that purpose?
The big question is: who pays for all this infrastructure? Will a bond be used and paid back by the reclaimed water users? Also, the costs to pump water to the reservoir must be paid by those that use the water. Only they are beneficiaries.
This water project sounds a bit like the movie “Chinatown”, St. George has others pay for their obligations.
Thanks Mike for the well presented article. As you point out many areas throughout the country rely on reuse water to supplement their culinary water supplies. In many cases the treated water is stored by pumping it into underground aquifers. This proven technique should be explored by the WCWCD rather than adopting the “quick and dirty” approach of surface storage. For anyone interested in the technical and historic story of reuse water the book, Purified by Peter Annin is a worthwhile read. In some cases these municipalities have been able to increase supplies and not have to invest in costly secondary irrigation systems. WCWCD and Ivins City should be looking at the long picture and adopt forward thinking water strategies before relying old old school solutions.
Costs need to be addressed before decisions are made.
What will it cost annually to treat and pump the reuse water from Bloomington to the proposed reservoir? (Mike noted that refilling pumping costs would be $326,000.) Who will pay? How do these costs compare to current costs of culinary water treatment and delivery?
How much of this treated and pumped water will simply be lost to evaporation in the shallow reservoir? What cost is associated with that?
I have been told by a WCWCD employee that secondary water is already being sent through the Bloomington pipeline to Fire Lake. Is that correct, and if so, what does this cost, who is paying, and is Ivins using any of this water?
Ivins will be responsible for maintaining the area surrounding the reservoir (but not able to use the water for lack of infrastructure). What will be the annual maintenance costs and who will pay these?
How much will the reuse water pipe delivery system in Ivins cost to build? Who will build and pay for it? When?
These additional projects and costs are deemed necessary for what exactly? More development, more STR’s, more water parks? How much more development? Which of these costs will the developers be required to pay?
Good questions Barbara. Some preliminary/quick responses: The $326,000 for refilling is just the cost to pump it to us if we were to refill the reservoir periodically so it doesn’t drain down. Probably too much cost to do. As for overall costs – I believe they would be spread across the cities but I don’t know what cost impact that will have on utility bills. Evaporation is a problem for all reservoirs. I pointed out in a post I did in 2021 (https://www.mikescott4ivins.com/?p=550) that all the reservoirs in the state lose a total of about 1 million acre-feet a year due to evaporation. The city has a phased plan to build up the secondary water system. I will write about that soon along with info related to your other questions. Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
Mike,
I also want “THANK YOU” for all of your personal time and effort you put into this issue facing us!
My question is: Has the Ivins City looked into Federal Grants to help with COST of just to say, deepening a Reservoir opposed to widening a Reservoir or other available construction idea for the holding of Secondary water? A Secondary Water Reservoir could as you say with chemical blowoff from the winds cause a Medical Crisis to the residents, Wildlife and Agriculture over time! The SouthWestern States are ALL in this Water Dilemma and will be working on hitting up the Federal Government for local help, shouldn’t we be NOW working on getting funds allocated to us before the rush?
Obviously, I am Not an expert in this field, but from a layperson perspective I think this is something we should be exploring now! This is not a slam against any department in the City, I just haven’t heard/read anything about obtaining possible funding for this large scale of a project for what will be a basic necessity for living here in Southern Utah!
As a Master gardener and plant lover, my mind went to possible options after the tricky removal of tamarisk at the site.
Is there a possible scenario of surrounding the reservoir with gnat-repelling plants like rosemary, lemon thyme, bee balm and the like? Could we get botanical help from Utah Tech and Red Hills Botanical Garden and create an educational strolling park, with a gravel path through drifts of beg-repellant and drought tolerant plantings? Perhaps horticulture students could help with the design and/or implementation?
Having served for 10 years as a director of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, I am appalled by WCWCD’s plans for what amounts to an open-air wastewater treatment facility in a pristine natural area surrounded by a low density residential community. I do not understand why the Ivins City Council would allow WCWCD to degrade and devalue this lovely property with such an ill-considered project. I have 4 suggestions:
1. Reconsider the “need”. Now that WCWCD has finally adjusted its unrealistic claim to Colorado River Water from Lake Powell, it must also adjust its unrealistic definition of the “need” for water from other sources. County residents do not need or want the additional golf courses, water parks, and uncontrolled growth included in WCWCD’s calculation of “need”.
2. Don’t allow the rezoning. Ivins taxpayers relied on the City’s low density residential zoning and commitment to preserve Dry Wash as a pristine natural area when they purchased their homes. Dry Wash is not an appropriate location for a wastewater facility generating dust, insects, tamarisk, and potential odor and health problems that impair the quality of life and devalue the properties for miles around it.
3. Insist on meaningful water conservation. The City should not even consider rezoning the property until the County and WCWCD adopt and enforce meaningful water conservation measures, including limits on development and increases in the price of water, throughout the County.
4. Mitigate evaporation and blight by requiring that the proposed “reservoir” be covered. The word “reservoir” means “water reserver”. Instead of reserving water, the shallow pond in a hot “Dry Wash” proposed by WCWCD will inevitably lose a substantial amount of the water piped into it through evaporation. A covered facility with natural landscaping would mitigate evaporation, improve security, and protect City residents from the dust, insects, tamarisk, odor, and other blights the current plan would create. The additional cost can and should be covered by WCWCD water users.
Mike, this is a very comprehensive analysis of the benefits and problems (including potential solutions) with the proposed Dry Wash Reservoir. Thank you for summarizing it for everyone.
The overarching point here is if the reservoir is built, we need to get ahead of the issues, develop feasible solutions for them, ensure either the city or the WCWCD ‘owns’ the solutions, and ensure that they are implemented — not after the fact but before it is build. Well done!
Excellent article, Mike. Thank you for all your research efforts. Even where we live–in the northwest part of Kayenta–the gnats make spring and fall, the best times for being outdoors in Ivins, impossible for many people. You have answered many questions we all have about the proposed reservoir.
As to solutions, limit growth, lawns and golf courses so that we don’t need so much irrigation water. Water conservation seems to be working well despite population growth. We can do better in this area. But if conserving water means allowing more growth, we are just kicking the problem down the road.
If the reservoir is a given, can’t it be made much deeper with less surface exposed when it is at its low point? Haven’t we learned anything from the example of the Great Salt Lake and other lakes that disperse toxic dust when they dry up?
It should be possible to regulate recreational use of the reservoir. Many reservoirs do not allow any swimming, fishing or boating. Not allowing parking along Kwavasa or Hwy 91 would further discourage recreational use.
It is a difficult issue rooted in unwillingness of the powers that be to limit population growth. Towns in California have shut off building permits because there is not water to support additional growth. There are ways to limit growth. Growth will stop at some point. The question is: what will Ivins or St George for that matter look like when it does?
Daniel – here are short answers to your questions: (1) The city hasn’t started writing a management plan. I want this to be an agenda item starting with our January 18th meeting. (2) For a long time the plans have been to phase secondary connections in Ivins. I’ll put together info about this in the next week or two. (3) We have an agreement with WCWCD for culinary water – enough for current population and significant growth, but not enough to meet future projected “build-out.” But although we’re “guaranteed” that water, WCWCD is still relying on nature to deliver it. I’ll address this item too. (4) I don’t believe we should look at reservoir water as belonging to “us.” It can be used elsewhere in the county. We’re not remotely self-sufficient with water now – we get almost all of our water from the Sand Hollow and quail Creek reservoirs. aside from the specific water rights that cities have (Ivins has very little), water is a regional resource. You asked great questions – I will work on them.
Thanks for posting this update. Some questions:
Who within the Ivins City government is writing the Dry Wash Reservoir Management Plan, and what is the status of progress toward a completed Plan?
Given the lack of a secondary water distribution infrastructure across Ivins, what is the estimated cost of building the infrastructure and when would it be in place to benefit Ivins?
What guarantees does Ivins have from WCWCD for a specific, annual allocation of Dry Wash water vs WCWCD determining the water is best pumped elsewhere?
If Ivins water needs from the reservoir are not provided as anticipated, could Ivins end up with the cost of reservoir maintenance without access to the water? If so, how does Ivins recoup the costs of maintaining a “facility” for the benefit of other municipalities?
The gnats make enjoying outdoor activities difficult. Just walking the dog I get chewed up. They are getting much worse based on our experience of living here for 11 years.
I have no solutions to any of this. Damned any way it seems.
Thanks for all your research and reporting.
Thank you, Mr. Scott (and those he interviewed), for this helpful information. Let’s keep the discussion going. Informed decisions will best serve Ivins residents and help us make the right choices moving forward.
Mike – What a great article, thank you so much for organizing this. My one and only comment is in the very first paragraph in the ‘Wants and Needs’ section it says Terry Martin wanted this area to be for people’s enjoyment. I don’t understand all of Terry’s logic, but in case you’re not aware, Terry has posted ‘No Trespassing’ signs to the pickleball trail system. Scuttlebutt I hear is he is worried about liability. Either way, this sucks for the local community as many people have enjoyed access to this area for walking, dog walking and mountain bike riding. So giving Terry current credit for allowing people to access this open area is in error… Sad to say.
Paul