Sunrise Engineering presents 20-year water master plan; recommends source upgrades, $8M in projects

Sunrise Engineering presented an updated 20-year water master plan to the Orderville Town Board that identifies system strengths and deficits, recommends several source and distribution improvements and estimates roughly $8 million in capital projects over the planning window.

Paul, a presenter from Sunrise Engineering, told the board the study updates a 2017 plan and projects town growth at about 2.7% through 2030 and about 1.5% annually thereafter. The firm translated demand into equivalent residential units (ERUs) and projected roughly 285 new ERUs over 20 years.

The study examined average and peak water demands (the consultant cited an average residential use figure of about 262 gallons per day per ERU and a modeled peak-instantaneous node of roughly 696 gallons per minute), current sources, and storage. Paul reported that the town’s current primary sources include the North Springs and Red Hollow springs and that some sources such as Bruce’s Well and Mount Carmel Well are being held for emergency use only. Sunrise Engineering estimated combined storage across the town’s tanks at roughly 1.18 million gallons and said that, when emergency reserves are set aside, storage meets current code requirements.

Recommended near-term (five-year) work includes upgrading the town’s SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) telemetry and monitoring. In the five- to ten-year window the report recommends developing additional sources: improving collection at Mill Springs, expanding North Springs collection and access (including a proposed access-road/bridge to ensure reliable service), and conducting a well-siting and exploration study for a potential new well (the consultant mentioned Elk Spring Road as one possible study area). Longer-term projects include distribution upgrades where modeling showed pressure or fire-flow shortfalls, including upsizing a six-inch line on Tate Lane and other distribution improvements.

The consultant presented a notional financing plan that assumes some projects would be eligible for impact-fee funding and that the town could pursue low-interest loans (Sunrise suggested 2% as an illustrative rate) from sources such as the Community Impact Board and the State Drinking Water revolving fund. Total capital costs shown in the presentation were about $8 million.

Sunrise also reviewed the town’s water fund and user-rate structure. The current base rate cited in the presentation is $37.50 per connection, with tiered volumetric charges above that. The firm calculated an average monthly bill for an ERU at roughly $44.67 and, after modeling fixed and variable costs and including projected debt service, produced a baseline cost-recovery example that yielded a fixed-cost component of about $33.89 and a variable component of about $7.72 (total $41.61) under their assumptions.

Paul said the firm evaluated which portions of the proposed projects are eligible for impact fees under Utah law and estimated that a portion of near-term source projects could be fee-eligible (the presentation listed about 8% of the North Springs development and about 15% of a new well’s cost as attributable to new growth). Sunrise noted that Utah code limits maximum allowable impact fees; the presentation listed a maximum allowable fee per new ERU at $7,600 in the firm’s calculation.

Board members asked clarifying questions about growth assumptions, water-right limits, eligibility for grants and loans, and the timing of future master-plan updates. The consultants recommended that the town maintain a renewal-and-replacement fund (Sunrise used a planning assumption in the financial model) and that master-plan check-ins occur approximately every five years to keep projections current.

Ending Sunrise Engineering said it will provide the final report and recommended next steps; the board did not take immediate action to adopt the plan, and staff and the consultant indicated the plan will inform future budgeting, impact-fee discussions and grant/loan applications.