ST. GEORGE — While the onset of colder months may not be the time people usually think about water issues, water districts across the state continue to stress the need for water conservation in various ways. But what else are those agencies doing to secure water for future use?

In the case of the Washington County Water Conservancy District, various projects are in the works that, while projected to take multiple years to complete, are anticipated to help keep the county’s water supply viable in the face of continuing growth.

One of the bigger projects involves the creation of a regional secondary water system that would help replace the use of culinary, or drinking quality water, for outdoor watering with secondary, or irrigation-quality water. It is estimated that up to 60% of the drinking water in the county is used for outdoor watering, so beginning to replace that with a different water source will help prolong the county’s own drinking water supply.

“We’ve been planning it for years,” Zach Renstrom, general manager of the Washington County Conservancy Water District, told St. George News in a recent interview. “We’re spending a lot of our time focused on that.”

Water used in the regional secondary system would also use reuse, or recycled water, Renstrom said.

“It’s essentially taking sewer water and treating it to a very high standard and then using that for outside irrigation,” he said, adding that while it is not good for drinking, the reuse water will work quite well for irrigation.

In the past and currently, secondary water is been used to irrigate landscaping for public buildings, golf courses, cemeteries, school district properties and so on. These areas also tend to be watered at times when the county and municipalities have already set daytime watering restrictions for residents. This has been a sticking point for many area residents over the years who have repeatedly asked why, as they see it, the cities or the county are wasting water.

The answer, as previously covered by St. George News, relates to the county’s ability to store secondary water for later use. For now, that storage capacity doesn’t exist. This results in the water being used as it becomes available.

“We have to construct several lakes to hold that water,” Renstrom said. “Our reservoirs were not designed to store that water.”

Both Renstrom and his predecessor, Ron Thompson, said building storage reservoirs for secondary water and creating a delivery system for it would be tremendously expensive. Hesitations over cost have since been pushed aside due to the increasing severity of the mega-drought impacting the Southwest.

The water district currently has three new reservoirs planned with the first set to begin construction next year near Toquerville.

“The first phase is the Toquer Reservoir, which should start construction in 2023 and will take approximately two years to complete,” Karry Rathje, the district’s communications and government affairs manager, said.

Other reservoirs are planned for the Ivins area and Warner Valley as a part of the regional reuse water system.

The new reservoirs would be filled with the water people used during the winter months and stored for use in the summer, Renstrom said.

New piping and additional treatment centers will also need to be installed, constructed and expanded as the system gradually comes online.

The St. George Wastewater Treatment Plant already has some capacity to treat reuse water but needs expanding, Renstrom said, adding that work also is being done at the Ash Creek Special Service District that supplies and treats water for Toquerville and the surrounding area.

New developments already have begun to include infrastructure for secondary water systems in preparation for the time the new system will come online. This also has become a requirement for new construction within the county and its municipalities with the adoption of revised water conservation ordinances over the summer.

As for how long it will take for the entire regional system to be built, Rathje said it may take up to 30 years, though she reiterated it will also come online in phases as the system is built.

“We’re still working through the regional reuse system concept, securing the needed permits and approvals, coordinating with the cities and considering funding options,” she said.

While a regional reuse system will “help eliminate” much of the culinary water use for irrigation, there will still likely be small parts of the county where that practice will persist due to specific limitations, Renstrom said.

Another long-term project the water district has is potential deep well drilling along the Hurricane fault line.

For now, the water district is working with the state engineer and federal partners to figure out the best spot to drill based on previous studies and oil well logs.

“We’re still having conversations about where the best place to drill is,” Renstrom said. “We have studies and old oil well logs that show there’s water down there. The question is if it is drinking-quality water.”

Renstrom said he believes there is drinking water available for use deep underground that doesn’t connect to any existing aquifers and that the county should have access to it; however, it’s an expensive proposition. One deep well exploration can cost up to $2 million and there’s no guarantee the exploration will produce anything useful. On top of that, if water is found, pumping it up to the surface will also be pricey, he said.

Before any of this can happen, the water district application for the deep well drilling needs to be approved by the Utah State engineer, and they’re still reviewing it, Rathje said.

If approved, the deep well project could take many years and several million dollars to complete.

Other projects the water district is pursuing in the meantime include additional well development in the Sand Hollow area, as well as the addition of a new well and 3-million gallon water storage tank for the district’s Cottam system, Rathje said.

Some pipelines are also slated to be up-sized and provided new pump stations next year in order to deliver more water from Quail Creek Reservoir to the county’s growing towns and cities, she said.

Having long-term projects and plans is nothing new for water managers, Rathje said. There is also no worry about the county’s water running out by the time one of these long-term projects completes. This is because parts of these projects will be activated in phases and start supplying water as the rest of the project continues to be built.

“We believe the water will be there, if we didn’t, we wouldn’t pursue these projects,” she said.

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