Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
EPHRAIM, Sanpete County — City officials said a well was back up and running Thursday a little less than a month after a water pump broke, prompting an outside watering ban in the area.
Initial test samples indicated the water was again safe to drink, city officials announced in a Facebook post Thursday. Officials wrote they were conducting final tests before outdoor water restrictions related to the well outage would be lifted Monday.
The city initially had a restriction in which homeowners could only water their lawns twice a week. But when a shaft in the well pump broke on Sept. 19, the city issued a ban the following day for all outside watering. The break forced the city to switch all of its water supply needs to its backup springs, which had become “extremely low” due to a severe drought in the area.
Ephraim City Manager Brant Hanson said in September that while the water levels were low, they didn't want to rush the project because they wanted a permanent water pump replacement.
City officials wrote in a Facebook post that rainstorms that hit the area last week helped the backup spring flows, but they were still “down significantly from normal.” They also thanked residents for obeying the watering restrictions.
“It allowed us all to continue to have plenty of water to drink without indoor restrictions, which would not have been possible otherwise in our drought situation,” city officials wrote in the post.
While the outdoor watering restrictions for Ephraim will be lifted Monday, the Utah Department of Natural Resources officials said Friday that there is no need to water anymore and asked people to shut off their sprinkers for the season.
