Consultants present Moab water resource study; city says supply meets current demand but long‑term options identified

Consultants presented the Water Utility Resource Management Study to the Moab City Council on July 8, describing the work as an informational study that will feed a future 40‑year water plan.

Ben Meiners of Hansen, Allen & Luce (presenting remotely) said the study covered Moab City, Spanish Valley Special Service District (Guiza) and the San Juan Spanish Valley Special Service District. He said the study was intended as a feasibility review to provide a “menu” of project concepts — not a master plan or a capital‑facilities plan — and did not itself obligate the city to any projects. “This is not a master plan or to obligate us in any way to anything,” he told the council.

The study used existing master‑plan population projections (consultants said they used 1% growth as a baseline for the presentation) to produce high‑level annual and peak‑day demand scenarios. The presenters concluded Moab’s current infrastructure can meet daily needs at present: city production capacity was described as roughly 4,400 gallons per minute versus observed peak demands in the 2,000–3,000 gallons‑per‑minute range. Consultants said there was no immediate emergency but that demand could increase in coming decades and that planning for storage, fire flows and supplementary sources remains prudent.

Potential supplemental sources listed in the study included additional conservation, new wells, reconfigured use of Mill Creek, managed use of wastewater treatment effluent for irrigation, gray‑water reuse, purchases of water rights and, more speculatively, an exchange for Colorado River water (consultants warned that Colorado River options would require exchanges, additional rights and are subject to broad basin‑level constraints).

Presenters emphasized a gap in localized groundwater monitoring and recommended a targeted groundwater and spring‑monitoring program: additional monitoring wells, periodic water‑quality testing and closer coordination across water suppliers to better resolve aquifer yields.

Council members asked whether the report covered aquifer interactions (it did not) and whether projections included Spanish Valley and visitation. Consultants said the charts shown were specific to Moab City for the presentation but that the full report included regional analyses and that visitation was treated as part of existing system usage grown at the same projected rate.

Ending

City staff said the study is essentially final and will be made available to partner agencies; the council was asked to acknowledge receipt as an informational study and to use it to support development of a 40‑year water plan.