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Each of these 3 million gallon, concrete tanks
lies level with the landscape in Snow Canyon.
Then came the drought of 1977. A significant drought. A drought that nearly
brought the city to its knees. That summer the city actually asked residents
to volunteer to cut back on water use. Rudger McArthur, the water and power
board, and Glen Gubler and his crew were on constant alert. "We never reached
the point of having to ration," remembers Gubler. "But we came awful close."
The summer of 1977 caused water officials to do a lot of soul searching,
but the most important thing it did was turn their sights toward Snow Canyon.
There, several hundred feet below the ground, in aquifers between the Navaho
and Kayenta rock formations, they hoped to find the answer to St. George's
water problems.
Dr. Harry Goode of the University of Utah visited Snow Canyon with city
water officials in the mid 1970s. Based on the geology he saw, he assured
them there would be water if they were willing to drill for it. Bob Cardova
of the U.S. Geological Survey was also positive about the prospect of finding
an abundant source of water beneath the floor of the canyon.
Rudger McArthur, along with Glen Gubler and Scott Prisbrey, later canvassed
the entire upper Snow Canyon area, and all agreed on a drilling spot up
the Park's West Canyon. The water, according to geologists, would be stored
in aquifers within the contact zone between the Navaho and Kayenta rock
formations. They convinced the water and power board to appropriate $10,000
to drill a well, and the firm of Creamer and Noble was hired to engineer
the project. Sure enough, they hit water - a pure, sufficient flow - not
very many feet from the spot where city officials had originally estimated
it would be.
City leaders felt fortunate to be able to tap a water resource within the
limits of a state park. At the time, circumstances being what they were,
and through astute negotiations by the water and power board and water department
staff, all the bureaucratic hurdles were jumped. In the city's favor was
the fact that officials of Snow Canyon State Park badly needed a water supply
for park use. Part of the agreement with the State Parks Division was that
the project would deliver water to the park.
The water development in Snow Canyon was achieved through a compact with
the towns of Santa Clara and Ivins. All three municipalities participated
in the project, and all three have benefitted from the water supply. Recently,
Santa Clara has augmented its supply by installing its own well in Snow
Canyon.
The Snow Canyon system now has five wells (not including the new Santa Clara
well) which supply two giant underground storage tanks. Each of those tanks
whose vast flat concrete tops lay level with the landscape in West Canyon,
hold 3 million gallons. At a nominal investment of $3 million, St. George
gets 3 million gallons of water a day from Snow Canyon.
The Snow Canyon water, drawn from depths of 700 to 1,000 feet, is some of
the finest culinary water found anywhere in the United States.
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Articles taken from Making the Desert Bloom
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