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SARATOGA SPRINGS — When James Boley woke up Tuesday morning, water sputtered and dripped from his shower faucet.
Boley was among about 2,000 southern Saratoga Springs residents who experienced similar problems — low to little water pressure on secondary or culinary water lines.
Later that evening, city officials enacted a boil advisory, advising residents who did not have drinking water Tuesday morning to only drink boiled or bottled water, a precaution that's advised when culinary systems lose water pressure.
To Boley, it's yet another kink in the city's water system, which he said has been struggling for years.
"I would just like it fixed. I've given the city plenty of time," he said.
When a culinary water pump failed Monday night — limiting water access on the city's south side until the afternoon hours — residents were in an uproar, criticizing Saratoga Springs leaders for approving rapid housing development while failing to keep its water system on par with the growth.
"In my little neighborhood alone, there are hundreds and hundreds of homes planned to be built in the next two or three years. Hundreds," Boley said. "They can't even give us water pressure for the existing homes, and now they want to put hundreds and hundreds more homes in."
Saratoga Springs has grown from a population of 250 to more than 27,000 since it was incorporated in 1997, ranking as one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation. It's projected to grow to more than 140,000 by 2060.
City leaders acknowledged that Saratoga Springs has had water troubles over the past several years, not due to lack of availability, but because of an infrastructure that lacks backups.
So when a secondary well failed earlier this month, city officials had to supplement the water lines with culinary water to provide enough pressure for south side residents' sprinkler systems, said Spencer Kyle, assistant city manager.
That's why when Monday night's culinary pump also failed, both secondary and culinary lines spluttered, prompting a flurry of angry phone calls to City Hall and a whirlwind of angry comments on the city's Facebook page.
"Today was a perfect storm," Kyle said.
The timing of the well and pump failures was "terrible," he said. Hot temperatures have made it difficult for the city to keep up with water demand, Kyle said, and that's why residents such as Boley, who lives at the south end of the city in more elevated neighborhoods, have lacked water pressure over the past several weeks.
"However, I think the good news for our residents is we are bringing on additional water supply," Kyle added.
City leaders dipped into Saratoga Springs' emergency fund to enter into a $100,000 temporary contract with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, likely solving the pressure problems through the summer. The valve was opened Tuesday afternoon, Kyle said.
"That solves the issue for this summer," he said. "But we are also looking at additional, long-term improvements."
Another $4.8 million in funds are earmarked for two projects slated for completion by next summer: a pump to draw water directly from Utah Lake for the south end of the city, and an additional well on the north side.
Since the well failure earlier this month, city officials have encouraged those residents to water their lawns during afternoon hours, rather than in the morning or evening, because pressure would be higher during non-peak hours.
Some residents, including Boley, were outraged that city leaders would ask homeowners to water their lawns during the heat of the day, rather than encourage water conservancy. Residents are also bound by homeowners association requirements to keep lawns maintained.
"It just compounds the issue," he said. "It boggles my mind."
Jillyn Egan, who lives at a lower elevation than Boley, said she hasn't had culinary problems yet, but she has had to water her lawn at 10:30 a.m., otherwise there isn't enough water pressure for her sprinklers.
Kyle acknowledged the daytime water recommendations aren't ideal.
"There simply isn't enough water in our system for the demand (during those hours) in order to keep up with what's needed," he said.
Egan added that her "biggest concern" is if future developments aggravate the problem.
"I hope they can get it figured out soon, before everybody moves in, so it's not like, 'What do we do now?'" she said.
Several subdivisions are currently on hold and won't be approved until additional water sources become available, Kyle said.
As for development projects in progress at the heart of Saratoga Springs, city spokesman Owen Jackson said they should actually improve the city's overall system by adding newer infrastructure. But more houses also means more users and thinner distribution of water pressure in the meantime, he said.
"But that's why we're planning on additional sources, like the Central Utah agreement," Jackson said. "It's kind of a double-edged sword, where we have new infrastructure coming online, but we also have some of the old infrastructure that we're having to fix, and that's what we're working on."
Contributing: Peter Samore
