Castle Valley committee narrows hazard-plan edits to drought, water supply and groundwater

Castle Valley hazard-planning committee members agreed to concentrate revisions of the draft hazard mitigation plan on drought, water contamination and subsidence and to treat other edits as living public input for later integration.

Committee members said they would prioritize verification of local snowpack and monitoring-well data, update the plan with the town's newly completed water-budget study, and investigate whether the town should seek a revised drought emergency ordinance that aligns with state triggers and the municipal context.

The committee flagged limits in available snowpack data. Members noted that the nearest SNOTEL stations used for regional snowpack reporting are outside the Castle Valley watershed (one at LaSalle and a newer station at Willow Basin), so recorded regional percentages can misrepresent local snowpack conditions. Committee members asked staff to check the SNOTEL contacts and to seek other local records, including homeowner and rancher measurements, to support any percent-of-normal claims in the plan.

On groundwater monitoring and planning, members reiterated an existing practice of weekly or twice-weekly ditch-company and monitoring-well checks during runoff season and asked that the draft show this as a snapshot-based data source rather than a continuous hydrologic record. They asked staff to keep the plan's language precautionary, noting current monitoring wells have not shown declines in the water table but that aquifer responses can operate on timescales of months to years.

The draft will be updated to reference the water-budget study completed earlier in the year; the committee said that paragraph-level water availability statements tied to older studies should be edited or footnoted as "updated by the 2025 water-budget study" once the new study is published and incorporated.

Members discussed retention/attenuation measures above town. The BLM is exploring low-tech flood-attenuation ideas above Castle Valley, but committee members said engineered retention ponds often fill, require ongoing maintenance and may not provide long-term benefit; the committee asked that the plan note these trade-offs and consider retention as an option but reduce the expected benefit rating and note potential maintenance and liability costs.

The committee also asked staff to add an action to develop and distribute locally tailored guidance on residential rainwater catchment and other best management practices (BMPs) for water-wise behavior, and to combine education and BMP items in the draft so the two read as one mitigation/engagement action.

Finally, members agreed to "investigate revision of a draft emergency ordinance" rather than adopt mandatory local watering restrictions at this stage. The committee said this investigative language better reflects legal uncertainty about local authority over private wells and how state-declared drought emergencies interact with local action.

The committee asked staff to incorporate these edits and to return a revised draft for another technical review before broad public notice and a final public comment period.

Ending: The committee scheduled the next meeting to finish earthquake and biological hazard sections and to review recommended priority projects before wider public outreach on the updated hazard mitigation plan.