Utah cities, water providers stress water conservation amid drought conditions

LAYTON — As summer approaches, more and more cities and secondary water providers in northern Utah are monitoring public water use with a wary eye, bracing for hot, dry conditions and the possibility of new water restrictions.

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District has already reduced planned allocations to its agricultural customers and secondary water users by 20% due to the dry winter and drought-like conditions. Secondary water is the untreated water typically used to water lawns and vegetation and when providers use their allocation, the spigot will be turned off.

"I keep telling everybody in any meeting I'm at, I say, 'Nobody, I mean nobody, needs to water every day. I don't care how little or how much, they don't need to water every day,'" said Scott Paxman, general manager of the Layton-based provider, a public entity that serves customers around Weber and Davis counties.

Similarly, the city of Ogden last week declared what it calls a phase 2 severe water shortage, with a range of recommendations aimed at scaling back water use, including a call to the public to voluntarily limit lawn watering to twice per week. The only mandatory rule at this point is a prohibition on lawn watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., common in many locales, though the declaration warns that conditions may worsen.

"Pineview Reservoir, a critical source during peak summer demand, is currently at about 88% of capacity. While this remains relatively stable, reduced runoff and ongoing dry conditions are expected to place increasing pressure on water supplies as summer progresses," reads the declaration.

More than half of Ogden's drinking water, not affected by the varied restrictions, comes from wells and aquifers that aren't as dependent on seasonal runoff.

Riverdale officials in late April approved an order in line with the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District cuts, calling on residents to reduce outdoor watering by 20% or face a 25% increase in water rates. The increased rates would apply to households that use more than 10,000 gallons of water a month.

"If you conserve and stay within typical usage, your bill should look very similar to past years. This is not a revenue increase for the city — it's a conservation measure designed to help protect our limited water supply for everyone," Riverdale said in an announcement on the decision.

In Kaysville, hours will be scaled back at the splash pad at Heritage Park, a summer water feature geared to kids, and the city warned that secondary water allocations could be depleted as early as mid-August. Watering will be scaled back at some city locations, the city said in a statement, with a priority on maintaining athletic fields and grass at the Kaysville City Cemetery.

"We are anticipating a tough year with water availability due to record-low snowpack and dryness, and we fully support the directive from Weber Basin to conserve at least 20% in 2026," Kaysville City Manager Jaysen Christensen said in a message to KSL.

The splash pad will operate Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. instead of Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the typical operating hours.

The Roy Water Conservancy District, which provides secondary water to homes in Roy, said on its website that it is also facing a 20% cut in its water allocation. It's calling on customers to limit lawn watering to twice a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day and to cut back watering time by 20%.

"Secondary water will be turned off Oct. 1 or sooner if usage exceeds supply," the water provider warns.

Not as dire as in 2021

On the bright side, Paxman said water conditions this year don't seem as dire as in 2021, when the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District initially cut secondary water allocations by 60%, though it later relaxed that to 40%. "We're not going to be that bad this year. That year, we had very low reservoirs and very little snowpack, so we were hit doubly. This year, we at least have a decent amount of water in the reservoirs," he said.

Even so, he and other water officials will closely monitor water conditions as summer progresses, with an eye to new restrictions if need be. As of Thursday, nearly 94% of Utah was in at least a severe drought, with nearly 60% in an extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Jeff Humphrey, general manager of Pineview Water Systems, another northern Utah water supplier, said Pineview hasn't had to implement any mandatory secondary water cuts, at least not yet. Most of the water it gets comes from the Pineview Reservoir in Weber County, which he said is relatively healthy at this point.

"As the summer goes on, we'll keep readdressing it and then maybe down the road we might have to put (in) some mandatory reductions," he said.

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