WURMP: Committee to develop a Water Utility Resource Management Plan Moab & Spanish Valley, Utah
January 01, 2023NARRATIVE
Essentially this water resource management plan is an assumption that growth in Moab-Spanish Valley, for the next 100-years, will need to develop water resource infrastructure for 48,000 people; about four times greater than the present population of 11,270 people as of 2022.
What is not an assumption, is that the aquifers of this community are presently being monitored to make sure we avoid mining our groundwater supplies. As to the Colorado River, the year in which demand exceeded supply happened in 2003. Since 1991, the 30-year average of inflow into Lake Powell has been declining 800,000 acre-feet every ten years, or 2.4 million acre-feet.
The correct 100-year plan should be about adapting to the impacts of climate change, rather than to assume business as usual.
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PUBLIC EDUCATION EVENT: The first of three sessions
Sponsor:
Grand County Commission
Presenters:
Marc Stilson, Utah Division of Water Rights & Presentation
Arne Hultquist, Moab Area Watershed Partnership & Presentation
Archive of live presentation via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC70Y8042uU
Date, time and venue:
July 26, 2023 (Wednesday) at 6 PM
Utah State University, Classroom #101
1850 S. Aggie Boulevard
Moab, UT 84532
Posters: please print and distribute to your networks
WATER UTILTIY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN (WURMP)
Moab & Spanish Valley
- Official website. City of Moab.
- Sponsor: City of Moab
- Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
- via Zoom: http://bit.ly/WURMPFocusGroup3
- Sponsor: City of Moab
- Monday, May 22nd at 6:00 via Zoom @ bit.ly/WURMPFocusGroup2
- Wednesday, May 24th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Grand Center in Moab.
DATA AND REFERENCES
- 1978 - Contract between Moab Irrigation Company and Grand County Water Conservancy District
- 2019 - Moab Water Facts. pdf.
- 2022 - First WURMP webinar data sheets. pdf.
- 2023 - Data sheets updated. pdf.
- 2023 - Amenity Trap: How High Amenity Communities Can Avoid Being Loved To Death. Headwaters Economics.
Ten Strategies for Climate Resilience on the Colorado River Basin
- City Water Expert Seeks Public Input. Ashley Bunton for The Times-Independent.
- Aquifer uncertainties vex Moab City Council. By Ashley Bunton for Moab Times Independent.
- A snapshot of Moab's water issues. By Alison Harford for Moab Sun News.
- How to land the plane safely. By Sophia Fisher for Moab Times Independent.
- Water for the next century. Rachel Fixsen for Moab Sun News.
- Sharing the sandbox. Kiley Miller for Moab Times-Independent.
- Democracy in an era of water scarcity. Rani Derasary for Moab Times-Independent.
- Responses to Questions. August 15, 2023; Sophie Frankenburg at Logan and Simpson.
- May 04, 2023 - Living Rivers. John Weisheit, Conservation Director.
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December 14, 2022 - First WURMP focus meeting via webinar. YouTube. Data Sheets.pdf
- February 21, 2023 - Joint City and County Meeting. Understanding Groundwater in Spanish Valley. YouTube.
- March 21, 2023 - Grand County Commission. Grand County's Water Rights by Laurel Hagen. YouTube.
- April 25, 2023 - City Council WURMP Workshop. YouTube.
Criteria for a resource management plan. Utah Division of Water Resources
- Legislative authority is: City of Moab, Grand County, & San Juan County.
- Water Utility Purveyors: City of Moab, Grand Water & Sewer Service Agency, San Juan Spanish Valley Special Service District and Moab irrigation Company.
- City Engineer for City of Moab - Chuck Williams <eMail>.
- Hans, Allen and Luce; contractor to develop this management plan - Ben Miner <eMail>, Katie Jacobson (801-566-5599), Dan Jones.
- Logan Simpson Design - Sophie Frankenburg <eMail> is public engagement contractor; Jim Carter <eMail>.
- Sunrise Engineering - (800-560-6151) Devan Shields.
Formative Documents for the water Resource Management Plan
- 2022 - Memorandum of Understanding to Develop Water Utility Resource Management Plan.
- 2022 - Water Utility Resource Management Plan Scope of Work and Proposal.
- 2022 - Approval of MOU to Develop Water Utility Resource Management Plan: Agenda and Summary.
- Safe Yield: Should the local goverments exceed the safe yield requirement for the aquifers of Moab-Spanish Valley, then regulating authority will be transferred to the State Engineer.
- Matheson Wetlands: What is the brine layer doing and where is it going?
- Hwy 191 Springs: Is the quantity decreasing and is the quality degrading?
- Floods: Rain on snow, upstream dam failures, maximum precipitation events, monsoon cloudbursts, atmospheric rivers, sheet rain, development hardened landscapes. Colorado River, Mill Creek, Pack Creek; independently or all at sources of stream flow at the same time?
- Mill Creek: It waters the shade trees and provides riparian habitat, and recharges the vslley fill aquifer aquifer, which weighs down upon on the brine layer effectively. Is this free ecological service important to our community, or not?
- Sewer Service expansion will be required and preferably the facility will not be in the 500-year floodplain of the Colorado River, or the tributaries of Mill Creek and/or Pack Creek.
- Transportation corridor is already congested and unsafe.
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