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Cedar Hills outlines water shortfall, sources and limits amid statewide drought
Summary
City Manager Chandler Goodwin told a town-hall audience that all of Utah is in drought and described Cedar Hills’ water portfolio — two culinary wells (Harvey, Cottonwood), a connection to American Fork and 710 acre‑feet from the Central Utah Project — stressing limited margins and shared aquifer risks.
Chandler Goodwin, Cedar Hills city manager, opened the town-hall briefing by framing the problem in regional terms: “A 100% of Utah is in the drought and 59% of Utah is in what is classified as an extreme drought,” he said, noting expected runoff is well below normal and that snowpack peaked early this year.
Goodwin reviewed the city’s water portfolio and seasonality. He said the city operates two culinary wells — Harvey (Harvey Park) and Cottonwood (near the golf course) — maintains a connection for purchased water from American Fork, owns roughly 2,300 acre‑feet of groundwater rights for municipal wells and is entitled to about 710 acre‑feet annually from the Central Utah Project. He explained Pleasant Grove Irrigation Company (PGIC) typically delivers 750–850 acre‑feet of surface PI water in early summer, and the CUP allocation is a later‑season source that helps offset fluctuating canyon flows.
Goodwin warned the system has limited redundancy: “Our system doesn’t really have a huge margin for error,” he said, describing past equipment failures (variable frequency drives and motors) that have taken wells offline. He cautioned against relying on aggressive groundwater pumping to replace lost canyon flows, saying it risks long‑term drawdown shared across neighboring cities and noted local coordination through the North Utah County aquifer monitoring group.
