City leaders in Santaquin spent a substantial portion of their meeting reviewing regional water-right adjudication and related projects, as presenters described a multi-year process that will require many landowners to prove their water rights and that could affect local planning and infrastructure.

Councilmember Art summarized a presentation from the Division of Water Rights and said the adjudication on the south end of Utah County follows an earlier northern-county process. The adjudication will proceed by subdivision and will issue summons to landowners and water-right holders; staff emphasized that a holder must show ongoing use to avoid forfeiture under the adjudication timetable.

A staff speaker explained that the adjudication timeline spans several years: record review and claims in the near term, proposed determinations in the mid-term, and final judgments later in the decade. The staff briefing noted municipalities are treated differently: cities can protect rights by including them in a 40-year growth plan and so are generally not at immediate risk of forfeiture.

Why it matters: adjudication clarifies who holds water rights and how those rights are quantified and administered. For cities like Santaquin, the process affects long-range planning for supply, infrastructure design and budgeting. The Division of Water Rights’ approach also interacts with larger projects such as the Strawberry Valley/CUP work, where the Bureau of Reclamation and district managers are considering shifting from dedication agreements to third-party agreements and a new billing schedule.

Key excerpt from the meeting: a council member summarized the legal requirement discussed at the presentation: “a water right has to be proved up every seven years,” noting the process is applied by subdivision and district and that municipalities rely on 40-year plans to retain rights for future growth.

Council members raised questions about how the summonses would reach landowners, whether legacy wells and farm shares inside newly annexed city boundaries will be evaluated, and what the city might need to do administratively to protect municipal interests. Staff said they had already filed claims on some rights and that ongoing monitoring and engagement in the adjudication process will be necessary.

Next steps: staff and council agreed the topic will return to future meetings for continued updates and that staff will monitor upcoming filings, proposed determinations and opportunities to file diligence claims on rights Santaquin believes it holds.

Provenance: topicintro: SEG 505; topfinish: SEG 733.