St. George • Drought-prone Washington County is receiving a $20.5 million federal grant to aid in its efforts to build a regional reuse system that can store more spring runoff and treated wastewater, the Bureau of Reclamation announced recently.
To keep pace with growth, the Washington County Water Conservancy District unveiled a 20-year master plan last July that calls for securing another 47,000 acre-feet of water by 2042 by conserving more water and constructing a $1 billion regional reuse system.
District officials can use the money to build a reuse system that will include four more reservoirs, more pipelines, treatment facilities and other infrastructure. Once built, the system will help the district store more treated wastewater which could be used for outdoor irrigation during the hot summer months, freeing up culinary water to supply new construction cropping up in the county.
Currently, most of the 12.5 million gallons of effluent the St. George Water Reclamation Facility treats each day is discharged into the Virgin River and flows downstream into Lake Mead because there is no place to store it.
The cash infusion is coming courtesy of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021, despite opposition from every member of Utah’s all-GOP congressional delegation other than Sen. Mitt Romney.
Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, who was not a member of Congress when the vote was taken, hailed the news.
“Washington County is at the forefront of water conservation to make sure our residents and economy can continue to thrive,” Maloy stated in a news release. “The regional reuse system is exactly the kind of innovative solution to a dry climate that will help secure southern Utah’s future. It is great to see these federal dollars going to the right place.”
Maloy was elected last November to fill the Utah 2nd Congressional District seat vacated by Rep. Chris Stewart. For his part, Stewart opposed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, calling it a means for Democrats to implement their larger agenda and saying it carried an exorbitant price tag that American taxpayers could ill-afford. For district officials, however, any money — from whatever source — is like manna from heaven.
Washington County’s population is projected to grow from about 200,000 today to more than 464,000 in 2060, according to the Kem C. Gardner Institute. Further exacerbating matters, persistent drought over much of the past decade have essentially nixed plans to build the Lake Powell pipeline to supply Washington County with 27 billion gallons of additional water each year.
Now they can no longer bank on the pipeline, district officials are trying to make up as much of the difference as possible through stricter conservation measures and building the expensive reuse system over the next 20 years.
“We are planning for a hotter and drier climate with increased unpredictability in the availability of fresh water,” Zach Renstrom, the district’s water manager stated in the release. “Reuse water is critical to providing a reliable supply for our expanding economy and growing population.”
District officials expect to supply roughly 50% of the county’s water needs over the next two decades with reuse water once its system is built. That system will include 60 miles of pipeline, multiple pump stations and four reuse reservoirs, including the 3,700-acre-foot Chief Toquer Reservoir that is already under construction.
The 20-year plan also calls for constructing Dry Wash and Graveyard reservoirs just off State Route 91 west of St. George. During wet years, Renstrom said, the reservoirs would store excess storm runoff. In dry years, the district would fill them with mostly highly treated reused wastewater.
“The federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be put to good use and will be of great benefit to Utah and Washington County,” Renstrom said.
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