Lehi City News
Lehi City Moves to Phase II Water Conservation
Nichole Coombs | Lehi Free Press
A record-low snowpack and record heat in March have led Lehi City to adopt an aggressive plan to conserve more water earlier this year.
The Lehi City water department notified the city council and mayor that the city has moved into phase two, days before the irrigation season begins.
“I think we are looking at the need to conserve at least 30 percent or more this year to meet our city’s needs,” said Matt Dalton operations supervisor for Lehi Water. “We are expecting 50 percent of our normal irrigation allotment [of water]. Not culinary water, but irrigation water.”
Starting now, phase two means everyone, residential, commercial, and city-owned properties, are only allowed to water every two days with at least 48 hours between irrigation cycles.
“That includes no hard surface washing like pressure washing driveways,” said Dalton. “Absolutely no hard surface washing.”
Irrigation season started for Lehi City on April 15. As part of the conservation process, everyone has been asked to hold off on irrigation until May 1.
“The tricky part of phase two is we don’t want residents to start irrigating two days a week just because they can,” said Dalton. “There isn’t a need now, so please conserve.”
Dalton says residents can reference the lawn watering guide provided by the state at conservewater.ut.gov.
“Right now, that map shows that the only county in the state that should be irrigating is Washington County and only one day per week,” said Dalton. “Just because we can water, doesn’t mean we should. Depending on the weather in May, we may be able to water once or twice a week.”
Lehi’s water sources can be divided into two categories: surface water that flows naturally and stored water.
“Lehi gets the bulk of its natural flowing water from Dry Creek and the American Fork River,” said Dalton. “We rely heavily on those two sources of natural flowing stream water, and this year, they are forecasting to be at record lows as well.”
In the past three years, Utah has experienced both its highest and lowest snow water equivalent.
“2023 was amazing,” said Dalton. “We had our highest year yet. Now, just three years later, we are at the lowest.”
If conservation regulations are followed before the heat of summer hits, Dalton says Lehi residents will be able to conserve the 30 percent needed to reach the end of the irrigation season in October.
“If folks get on board and we get a great conservation program going from everyone in the city, there will be irrigation water to enjoy everything we need, including gardening. But we need to start now to make sure there is plenty for the latter part of the summer.”
Part of the conservation plan is regulating usage. Over the past year, by state mandate, the city has been installing a new water meter system.
Residents will start seeing information about the new system in the coming months. The information will explain how metering works and how to access information about individual lot usage. Each parcel of land will be assigned a water allotment at a set price, similar to what homeowners and commercial property owners experience now. Once that water is used, the cost of additional water moves up the tier. The owner will pay a higher price for extensive irrigation use. Dalton expects the higher price will help people self-monitor their usage, leading to greater conservation efforts by individual owners. The system will not be activated until all infrastructure is complete and a wide-scale public information campaign is completed. However, pieces of the process will start to come online as the city prepares for the move.
“Soon, residents will be able to log into a portal and see their water usage,” said David Norman, public works director. “We hope to have it online in the next couple of months.”
The meters will also help city officials detect leaks and notify residents via text or email. The current system requires an employee to knock on a resident’s door or leave a door hanger.
In 2021 and 2022, Lehi City also implemented phase two of the conservation plan. During this time, Lehi reduced its usage by 30 percent. Utah was in a statewide drought, and conservation education was coming from both city and state officials. Although Utah officials have not announced a statewide drought, 98 percent of the state is currently experiencing severe or extreme drought, according to Dalton.
“We may have to implement phase three [this year] depending on the real water supply,” said Dalton. “We will monitor how the irrigation companies perform and how our stored water holds out, but this really could be the year that we have to implement phase three; we just don’t know yet.”
Phase three would cut irrigation watering to one day a week, as well as make all the voluntary restrictions mandatory.
If residents don’t voluntarily comply with phase two watering restrictions, the city can issue warnings and, ultimately, fines.
“It’s not something we want to do,” said Dalton. “In years past, we haven’t gone that route because we haven’t felt like we needed to. But this year scares us.”
Dalton says one way residents can help is to pay attention to water usage around them.
“If you work late at night or early in the morning and you see a broken sprinkler or something like that, please let us know,” said Dalton. “Oftentimes, residents and commercial landowners don’t realize there’s a problem because watering is happening during the nighttime hours.”
Lehi City parks department, churches, and the school district have all been contacted and are following the phase two conservation rules. Oftentimes, parks and schools have 15 or more sprinkler zones. Each zone is only on for a few minutes, but it may look like it’s on for an extended period of time. If you are concerned, call the city and let them know.
“Everyone is on board,” said Norman. “We have representatives from admin, the public information team, the water department, and the parks department. We meet, and we strategize, and we talk about the current conditions. We talk about how we get the message out to our residents. Everyone in the city is working together on this.”
Besides conserving water, there are other actions Lehi residents are encouraged to take.
“Look at their yard. If you have turf you aren’t using, don’t water it and look into some of the rebates available from slowtheflow.org,” said Dalton. “If you aren’t using it or you don’t like it, change it to a water-wise space.”
