Table of Contents
Quail Creek Water Treatment Plant, now a 20 MGD facility.
Anticipating the tremendous growth southern Utah would experience by the
turn of the century, the Washington County Water Conservancy District conceptualized,
designed, engineered and built the Quail Creek Reservoir project during
the 1980s. The County Conservancy District was an outgrowth of the Dixie
Project which was abandoned in the 1960's. The Quail Creek project was the
district's first to move from planning board to reality. With an affirmative
vote of 89 percent, the residents of Washington County approved funding
the project at a cost of $20 million. Planning for Quail Creek began in
1982. The project would ultimately include a diversion dam upstream on the
Virgin River, an underground pipeline feeding the reservoir from the diversion
site, hydro-electric plants on the pipeline, and a storage reservoir of
over 40,000 acre feet. By the spring of 1986, the reservoir was half full
and the facility was in full use by 1987.
The City of St. George viewed Quail Creek as a $20 million water project
with no customers. It was obvious that the city should be a prime user of
Quail Creek water. The question was how much water, and what the cost would
be. Part of Wayne McArthur's initiation was involvement in negotiations
between the city and the County Water Conservancy District. The city didn't
feel it should have to pay for water from the project, since its citizens
had already been taxed to build it. In the end, the City of St. George contracted
to lease 10,000 acre feet of water from Quail Creek on a 50 year agreement,
with an option to buy. Such a commitment required the city to begin planning
a water treatment plant, something new for a community which had for more
than a century obtained its water from pure underground sources.
These negotiations occurred during the summer of 1985 at a time when St.
George was suffering possibly its worst water shortage ever. McArthur was
anxious to get ahead of the ball game. The Quail Creek water would virtually
double the city's water resources. At the time, the city wasn't even using
10,000 acre feet. but utility leaders felt it was time to move from a history
of multiple wells and springs to a more "sure," "manageable," "firm," water
supply. As McArthur characterized it: you can "see" what's there when you're
dealing with surface water. The city as since then exercised its options
and purchased its share of Quail Creek water.
<
Previous | Next >
Articles taken from Making the Desert Bloom
Copyright
2009 City of St. George |
City Forms and
