A discussion on water was held by Darrel Leamaster from the Castle Valley Special Service District at the school board meeting. He talked about the drought and how they anticipate serious water problems with the secondary systems for Huntington and Cleveland. Utah Power has leased 6,000 acre feet at $600 per acre foot. Local cities can’t afford to match those prices and have lost some of their leased water which was previously available to them.
Schools are big water users with large grounds to maintain. Leamaster went over each school and their acreage with water usage based on three acre feet of water per acre: San Rafael Junior High, 13.60 acres irrigated and water usage 40.80, Ferron Elementary, 3.27 acres and water usage 9.81, Emery High, 9.26 acres and water usage 27.78, Castle Dale Elementary, 9.70 acres and water usage 29.10, Cottonwood Elementary, 2.37 acres, water usage 7.11, Huntington Elementary, 1.31 acres, water usage 3.93, Canyon View Junior High, 13.54 acres, and water usage, 40.62, Cleveland Elementary, 6.54, water usage 19.62.
Back when the secondary systems were installed the school district was asked if they wanted to be put on the system. They did and their water shares were used by the cities to take care of the watering needs of the district school properties. Leamaster said the agreement has worked well in the past. There is a need to locate these shares and to be certain that they will be available for use by the cities. Leamaster said it will be a tough year and there will be tight restrictions which will apply to everyone and the schools will need to make special arrangements, water at night and practice other water saving measures. He predicted things will be tougher for the North end of the county, and about the same for Orangeville and Castle Dale.
Superintendent Sitterud said in the past Huntington City has used shares. Cleveland and Ferron have leased some, and Castle Dale City has had some assigned. He recommended that the board be consistent in all of the cities and make these shares available for their use without lease. A motion was made to assign water shares to each city in lines with the water consumption from the schools in that particular city. A motion to approve the action to let the cities use the water shares was made and approved. Steps will be taken to inform the secretaries at the irrigation companies of this recommendation.
It was also mentioned that there is a problem with the sprinkling system at Canyon View Junior High. Sprinklers are spraying the road and not rotating properly. A request was made that the system be checked before the secondary water comes into the system. Leamaster said it is the responsibility of each city to provide enough water shares for their city. They have tried to do this with purchasing shares so they don’t have to lease.
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