Park City hits stage-one drought

Park City water users are being asked to follow a set of strict regulations after city leaders declared a stage-one drought in the resort town.

Although a stage-one level is voluntary, the city is pushing conservation to avoid declaring a stage-two or even stage-three drought. City officials are handing out citations with fines up to $300 to violators of current water law.

The last time the city was in a drought was in 2003. As of Wednesday, Park City has been exceeding 85 percent of its capacity — 8.3 million gallons per day.

"We're starting to get perilously close to having a huge problem," said Myles Rademan, the city's spokesman.

A combination of less snowfall than usual, high temperatures in the spring and increasing growth in the town of 8,000 people has brought on the low water levels.

Park City gets its water from mine tunnels and wells. Because of small supplies, the city for years has reserved a water supply in Smith Morehouse Reservoir, 18 miles from Park City. Funding and alignment of a pipeline, however, has been difficult and has prevented tapping into that reservoir sooner, Rademan said.

Current water storage in the city allows for 10 million gallons in tanks. That amount is sufficient during the winter months, when only 2.5 million to 3 million gallons are used daily, Rademan said. But with irrigation taking up 70 percent of water use in the summer, the level has been shrinking fast.

City water law, which the city adopted in 2003, calls for no landscape watering between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. and only watering every other day. The city hands out warnings and does public-service announcements to remind residents to comply.

The city is also asking residents to limit washing cars, sidewalks and driveways; shut down fountains and ponds that do not recycle water; limit refilling swimming pools and hot tubs; and cover pools to reduce water loss, among other measures.

With a hot summer underway, the city is concerned. If city officials move up to declaring a stage-two or stage-three drought, tougher restrictions will be placed on residents. Under stage-two restrictions, no landscape planting is allowed. During stage-three restrictions, no lawn or landscape watering is allowed. Non-compliers will probably get their water shut off, said Rademan.

"I hope people will look around and realize we live in the second-driest state, and there's a drought going on here," he added. "We're very concerned about this."

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