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ST. GEORGE — A pending lease agreement could allow Kanarraville officials to limit hikers on the popular Kanarraville Falls trail in order to protect the town’s water supply.
Increasing visitation at the falls have put the small town’s water supply in jeopardy, Kanarraville Town Clerk David Ence said.
“The town would be remiss in their duties if they did not take steps to protect that valuable resource.”
Kanarraville has applied for a lease of up to 40 acres of land that includes the falls from the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, or SITLA, which owns the land.
Kanarra Creek, which forms the falls, provides water to the town’s 355 residents year-round.
During the height of the hiking season, the town estimates 300 people a day use the trail, with more on weekends.
Over Labor Day weekend in 2016, town officials estimate that 3,000 people visited the area in three days. A Bureau of Land Management environmental assessment published in 2016 estimated the number of annual visitors at 40,000.
“It’s a tremendous amount of people and there are no toilets up there, so we all know what that means,” Ence said.
