SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — The City of Francis, located just east of Park City, is asking people not to use water outdoors, saying levels are critically low.
“Obviously our lawn is dying. But I try to be understanding of the city as well. Grass is pretty resilient. We do have some new trees in the back that I’m a little worried about,” said McKenna Marcheant, who lives in the small town.
Marcheant says not watering the lawn during hot summer days isn’t ideal.
“That’s the issue... making sure the current residents have water sufficient for their needs,” said Marcheant.
Francis Mayor Jeremie Forman said the situation is not something to take lightly.
“It’s not a joke. It’s not a game. And I understand that and I understand the frustration that people are experiencing,” he said.
He said while he knows it’s not convenient, there will be bigger problems in the next few days if people don’t follow the advisory.
“If we don’t work together and we continue to water outside and we continue to water in the middle of the day, we run a real risk of waking up in the morning without enough water in the system to supply residents and we don’t have baths, showers, a drink of water,” said Forman.
Forman said the city is working as quickly as possible to obtain temporary pumping from a new well, which he said they hope to have running by Monday.
“What this issue is is it’s not a supply issue. This is a pumping capacity issue,” he explained.
The mayor said new developments in the area approved a few years back have allowed the city to pay for infrastructure improvements like a new tank and a new well.
He added it’s taken a while with backed-up supplies and getting contractors to get the pumping capacity up in order to get the water into people's homes.
“The long-term solution is under construction and as soon as it’s complete, which we anticipate to be this fall, then these problems should all go away,” said Forman.
Marcheant said she understands the city hasn’t approved any more site plans or new developments in the past couple of years, but thinks all construction, even that’s approved, should be halted.
“You can see there’s still building going on and taking place,” said Marcheant, “So an influx of even more buildings of even more landscaping and residents who will need water without really the pumps to supply it.”
Mayor Forman said this would be tough to impose.
“Obviously, it’s a delicate balance between placing a moratorium and saying: ‘You don’t have the right to do what you’d like with your property,’ and then still maintaining personal property rights,” said Forman, “So you have to look out for current residents but you also have to look after those who own property, who have property rights, because this is still America where you have those. And to me, that’s very important.”
In the meantime, Marcheant said she trusts the city is doing what they can, and she hopes its residents do what they can to conserve the accessible water too.
“I truly believe that it will take just a community working together in tandem with all of us following the city’s guidelines even if it does harm a little bit of our yards, and they look a little dry,” she said. “But grass is resilient; it will grow back. And so what we really need to focus on right now is just getting the water supply up so that we can ensure proper fire suppression and community needs.”
The city is asking everyone to halt outdoor water use until Wednesday, July 19.
