Council approves perpetual water-supply agreement with Central Utah Water Conservancy District

The Vineyard City Council approved a perpetual water-supply agreement with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District June 11 that formalizes allocations, storage and fee responsibilities tied to a 6-million-gallon city water tank.

Under the agreement, Vineyard will receive an annual allocation described in the contract as 1,500 acre-feet of Central Water Project (CWP) water through phased takedowns shown in the agreement exhibit. The deal also formalizes storage arrangements: Vineyard’s new 6,000,000-gallon tank is intended to house the city’s water supply, and the agreement reserves 2,000,000 gallons of permanent storage in Central Utah Water’s system to provide surge capacity — for example, to support firefighting flows.

Staff told council the agreement clarifies that Vineyard will not be double-billed for takedown/impact fees that Central Utah Water would otherwise charge, because Vineyard already paid required development charges to Orem City for certain water transfers. The contract includes standard annual operation-and-maintenance and capital-recovery fee components and establishes surcharge provisions for usage above the agreed parameters.

City staff described the agreement as a key obligation in the multi-agency partnership that includes the City of Orem and Central Utah Water. The term in the contract was described in the meeting as perpetual “as long as we are paying for the water.” The council approved the consent-item resolution to adopt the agreement by roll call.

The agreement is intended to secure a long-term supply and operational clarity for Vineyard as it brings its new storage tank online and continues to develop. Staff said the storage and rate provisions include safeguards to minimize surprise overage charges and that modeling indicates the city expects to operate within the contract parameters.