Mona asks Sunrise to expand water study to detail distribution, reuse and overflow capture; grant pursuit discussed

Mona city officials on Sept. 23 directed their consultant to develop more-detailed options for water distribution within town, examine reuse of wastewater and treated-water capture, and evaluate grant opportunities to offset costs.

Jonathan (staff/consultant) presented a draft report from Sunrise that reviewed supply options — a new well, use of the city well, and reclaimed wastewater — but, he and council members said, did not sufficiently detail how a distribution system within town would be built. Jonathan said, “they really haven't addressed kinda how we would build a a system within town,” and asked Sunrise to flesh out distribution alternatives such as trunk lines, connections to existing irrigation systems, and how reuse might be routed through a municipal distribution system.

Council members and staff discussed reuse and grant funding as key enablers. A councilmember observed that the cost “becomes feasible if we can get one of those 75% grants,” leaving the city responsible for roughly 25 percent of capital costs. Shay (staff) reported that a state metering grant pool recently reopened for a short period and that “there is grant funding available right now,” and she said the program window is limited; she offered to send details to staff. Meeting participants discussed a roughly $10 million-sized metering funding pool referenced in the session, but did not finalize which grant programs the city would apply for.

The council also asked Sunrise to analyze options to capture treated culinary-water overflow from the recently constructed city tank. Council members noted that overflow currently runs to the ground and into Mona Reservoir and suggested staff investigate whether the overflow could be collected for secondary uses or stored in an existing out-of-service pond near the Jarrett property. One councilmember suggested consulting Randy Brooks, the landowner of a disused pond and piping, as a possible storage option; staff said they would examine the feasibility.

Officials discussed the interaction between the water-study results and a forthcoming Conditional Use Permit (CUP) review: Roger (CUP representative) will be invited to a future work session, and councilmembers expected a two-hour session to coordinate the CUP and the water study. Staff also noted that financing models in the report — including example per-home acre-foot costs — change significantly if large grants are secured and if the city reaches the development scale assumed in cost models.

No formal action or vote was taken. Directions recorded in the session included asking Sunrise to return with more detailed distribution scenarios, requesting an engineering feasibility analysis of capturing tank overflow for secondary uses, and taking steps to assemble grant applications during the study’s next phase.