NOTICE TO APPLICANTS FOR NEW CULINARY CONNECTIONS
WITH ASHLEY VALLEY WATER AND SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
Ashley Valley Water & Sewer Improvement District ("AVWSID" or the "District") is a special district formed by Uintah County with one of its purposes of providing culinary water treatment and delivery services to its customers. The District was created approximately 30 years ago through a settlement with the County and Vernal, and started with a defined number of water rights primarily from Ashley Creek and Red Fleet Reservoir.
For thirty years the District has been able to provide service to applicants for new connections from these initial water rights, knowing that one day these initial water rights would be exhausted, requiring new applicants to turn water rights into AVWSID in order to receive service.
The District recently contracted with CRS Engineers who completed a thorough study of AVWSID’s existing system and water rights. They have conclusively determined that AVWSID’s existing water rights are fully committed to existing connections, meaning new connections will not be possible unless applicants dedicate additional water rights to the District to provide for their culinary needs.
This situation is not unique to AVWSID – turning over water rights to obtain a culinary connection is standard practice throughout the State of Utah and has been this way for decades. With that said, AVWSID has not had to historically require it because it has had the luxury of relying on the initial water rights given to the Company at its inception, which are now fully committed to existing customers.
FROM THIS POINT FORWARD NO CULINARY CONNECTION TO THE SYSTEM WILL BE ALLOWED WITHOUT THE DEDICATION TO AVWSID OF A WATER RIGHT SUFFICIENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE REQUESTED CONNECTION.
To aid in the dedication process, AVWSID has now adopted a standardized amount required for each type of connection. The amounts were established in the CRS Engineer’s study. The calculation is based on two types of use: 1) the amount you will use inside of your home (standardized at .54 acre feet of depletion annually); and 2) the amount you will use for exterior irrigation (in the Basin the duty to irrigate one acre of land annually is 3.7 acre feet of water and this duty is used to calculate the amount of water needed for lots ranging from .25 of an acre up to 1 acre). As part of the application process you will meet with a board formed by AVWSID who will review your application and indicate how much water you will need to turn in based.
Once you know how much water you need to turn in, you will need to determine if your water right or irrigation share is one AVWSID can accept. Not all water rights in the Basin are available for use by the District. The following are requirements for the District to accept your water right:
A) no water rights or water shares will be accepted by the District that have unreasonable restrictions placed upon them by the issuing irrigation company (i.e. the capacity to impose unusually high or unfair assessments on shares dedicated to culinary use, restrictions on the capacity of the District to vote the shares, etc.); and
B) a change application on the share or water right must be filed and approved by the State Engineer approving the use of the share or water right within the District's Culinary Water System prior to dedication to the District. In your meeting with the Water Advisory Board the members will review your water rights and let you know if they have concerns regarding whether your water right is acceptable.
It is solely the responsibility of the person or entity requesting the culinary water connection to provide adequate water rights that have been approved by the State Engineer and that meet the criteria established by the District.
The District has adopted resolutions, policies and procedures designed to insure fairness for everyone in the dedication process. These policies and procedures are available at your request and are included as part of the application for a Culinary Connection.
Please note that the District has an on-going fiduciary obligation to make sure that existing customers are protected, that current levels of service are not adversely impacted by further expansion of the culinary system, and that any water rights accepted by the District for new growth have received the requisite approvals and are not encumbered by restrictions that might be detrimental to the District or its customers either now or in the future.
The District looks forward to working with you on your application for a Culinary Connection to assure it can provide the highest quality culinary water service to existing customers, and to assure that you dedicate sufficient water rights to meet the needs of the new connection.
