Ivins mayor credits conservation, modeling for deferring controversial Dry Wash reservoir

Mayor Chris Hart said Ivins’s two-year redraft of its general plan is complete and credited residents’ input and local conservation for reducing regional reservoir needs.

Hart, speaking at the Ivins State of the City, said a citywide survey returned roughly 53% of responses and that water emerged as the dominant public concern. He said modeling commissioned by the Washington County Water Conservancy District and conducted by Stantec Engineering found only one of two proposed West Side reservoirs would be required, removing the immediate need for the Dry Wash Reservoir and leaving Graveyard Wash as the anticipated project.

"We received about a 53% response rate on the survey," Hart said, adding that a word cloud of responses showed "water" as the largest concern. He told the audience the county’s reuse-system modeling — part of a multibillion-dollar plan he described as the county’s "plan B" — concluded one reservoir would suffice.

Why Dry Wash was deferred, Hart said, was largely local conservation. He told attendees Ivins has among the county’s lowest per-capita water use and cited a new district standard for new connections of 0.59 acre-feet (down from a prior standard of 0.89). He also said Ivins’s current per-connection figures are substantially below the district standard (he mentioned figures around 0.49 and at one point 0.43 during his remarks).

Hart also tied the conservation gains to cost avoidance, saying the city’s reduced water demand helped avoid building what he described as a roughly $21,000,000 reservoir project. He added that Stantec’s modeling estimated a large reuse system for the county could cost more than $1,000,000,000.

The mayor outlined further measures Ivins plans to pursue to cut water use by another 10% over the coming year: automated metering infrastructure (AMI) that notifies residents of abnormal use via a phone app, more transparent billing that allows household-to-household comparisons, and voluntary residential irrigation standards developed with Utah State University Extension. Hart said the council has authorized the city to promote those standards but acknowledged the city cannot legally withhold certificates of occupancy based on voluntary irrigation certification.

Why it matters: water supply and the county’s reuse plan affect growth, development approvals and long-term infrastructure spending in Ivins and neighboring communities. Hart presented the general plan and the conservation steps as the city’s strategy to shape growth while limiting costly new reservoirs.

Next steps: Hart said the city will pursue AMI deployment, roll out the irrigation-standard program to buyers and builders, and continue to coordinate with the Washington County Water Conservancy District and county modeling efforts.