Spring City considers 6-month water connection moratorium amid drought crisis

SPRING CITY—The Spring City Council has reviewed a resolution calling for a moratorium of up to six months on approval of new water connections because of the current drought.

The resolution, considered at a meeting Thursday, June 2, also suggested that based on reports from the city’s public works director on the cost of extra power for pumping water out of wells, water rates may need to be raised.

In Spring City, resolutions are often introduced and discussed in one meeting and voted on in the next meeting. But Mayor Paul Penrod said, “We may have to have an emergency meeting and vote on this.”

The primary sources of Spring City culinary water are five springs, Cory Madsen, public works director, explained in an interview with the Messenger. Recently, the springs collectively have been yielding about 50% of their normal flow.

The city also has three tanks, all located in the mouth of Spring City Canyon. One is a newer 500,000-gallon tank. It is uphill from two older tanks, both 250,000 gallons. In normal times, the springs flow into the upper tank, which serves as the city’s primary water storage facility. The upper tanks feed the two lower tanks, each of which sends water into specific sections of the city.

The city also has three wells—two near the mouth of the canyon and third on 200 West, which is some distance downhill from the water tanks. Lately, the wells collectively have been at about 40-45% of their usual levels, Madsen said.

When water from the springs isn’t sufficient to keep the upper tank full, the city turns on its well pumps. Most of the time, it relies on the two wells near the canyon, he said. But lately, “We’ve been using the west well quite a bit to offset the other wells,” he said.

In normal times, when the city does turn on is wells, it takes 24 hours, sometimes a little longer, to fill the upper tank. But as of Tuesday, Madsen reported, the city had been pumping water out of its wells for four days, yet the upper tank was 6 feet shy of being full.

“It’s unprecedented,” he said.

At the city council meeting, Madsen reported on how much electricity Spring City has used in past years compared to this year to run well pumps. In 2023, he said, the city used 327 kilowatt hours of power over the full year. In 2025, it used 420 kilowatt hours. So far this year, it has used 7,570 kilowatt hours.

Spring City residents get their secondary irrigation water, which they use for watering lawns and gardens, from the Horseshoe Mountain Irrigation Company. Although the irrigation company is independent from the city, it turns out there is a relationship between secondary irrigation water and the culinary system.

A retention pond dedicated to the Spring City secondary water system has gone dry twice this year, Madsen told the Messenger, cutting off irrigation water. Some users, including the city, have turned to culinary water. The city uses culinary water to water city hall and the cemetery. Watering has been cut back to two days a week to help conserve water.

“What’s more important, drinking water and taking a shower or green lawns? Right now, lawns are winning,” Madsen told the city council. “When we read the culinary meters in July, we’re going to see some drastic changes” in culinary water consumption.

Under the proposed moratorium resolution, “Any building permit, subdivision approval or water connection approval lawfully issued prior to the effective date of this resolution shall remain valid.”

But because there were about four months between November, 2025 and May 2026 when half-acre home lots were permitted in the city (as opposed to the historic 1-acre lot size), a number of new homes and even subdivisions are pending.

During the moratorium “the city shall not approve or authorize any new water connections that have not received final approval,” the proposed resolution states.

Further, it calls on the Public Works Department to “report within 30 days the financial impact of additional water pumping required by the state of emergency, and the extent to which such pumping may require an increase in culinary water rates.”

If approved, the moratorium would remain in effect for six months “unless modified, extended or terminated by the city council.”

In other action at the July 2 meeting, the council approved a bid from JCI Construction of Mt. Pleasant of $894,000 to build a sewer system “head house” at about 700 North and 200 West near Spring City’s lagoons.

The headhouse will be a cinderblock building containing a screening device to filter out extraneous items, such as rubber gloves, non flushable cleaning products, toys etc. that residents put down their sinks and toilets.

Other towns in Sanpete have installed such devices. But up to now, in Spring City, the items have flowed into the lagoons. That causes them to fill up faster, which can require them to be dredged more frequently, or even to be expanded.

Madsen said machinery connected with the screens will wash captured items into a trailer. From there, they will be hauled to the landfill.

Funds for the project are coming from a grant and loan Spring City received from USDA Rural Development to expand its sewer system.