Our first tour destination was the Town Hall in Coalville, Utah, where we met Mr. Doug Moore, their public works director.

Doug Moore, Director of Public Works, speaks to us about the Coalville system.

Coalville has a population of 1,400 and sits at the bottom of the Chalk Creek valley. The Chalk Creek valley consists of about 1,000 acres of irrigated pasture and alfalfa. It is served by six small ditch companies that have capacities that total about 40 cfs.

What I found interesting about this project was the degree of cooperation between irrigators, the municipality and federal agencies and the very fine project that resulted. But don't get me wrong - they had their share of troubles along the way.

The secondary system evolved from what started out as a water quality study by the local soil conservation district back in 1993. The initial concept was to replace all of the local ditches and diversions with a single diversion and piped system for all irrigators in the valley. In 1996, a committee was formed - comprised of representatives from all six ditch companies and also from the city. Mr. Moore indicated that although the secondary system was now a part of the concept, he did not attempt to steer the committee or distract the members from the core concept of piping and pressurizing the agricultural system.

A 1998 survey of the valley and the irrigation systems followed, and an initial cost estimate of $1.36M was submitted for consideration. This included a significant amount of grant money and cost-sharing from various federal sources. The city then determined what degree of oversizing would be needed if a secondary system were to be appended to the pressurized agriculture system, and offered to participate in the project and pay all of the oversizing costs. The city also proposed to build its own small reservoir to help meet peak demands. The city was unable to meet peak demands with its present single water system; they hoped that a secondary system would restore full pressure and more stability to the 'culinary' system.

A schematic of the Coalville system, with Chalk Creek flowing from right to left. The pink lines show the new pipelines installed in the valley and in the developed area at far left.

The city was so confident that the secondary system would eventually be built, they began requiring developers to install secondary system infrastructure in the new subdivisions.

The cost estimate for the city's portion of the project, including the oversizing of the agricultural system plus a complete secondary distribution system throughout the entire town, came in at $2.5M on top of the ditch company's project. The residents were very divided on the merits of the proposal, with only about 50% of the residents in support of the project.

The town was proposing to fund the project through a revenue bond, to be paid back by collecting $18/month from every water customer, regardless of whether they tapped into the secondary system. Anyone connecting to the system must have a sprinkler system installed on the lot. To tap in, customers would pay a $500 tap fee plus dedicate water rights (or pay cash in lieu of water rights.) The cash in lieu cost is approximately $4500 for a one-acre lot (many -if not most - lots are smaller than one acre, and the fee is proportional to lot size.) Here's something interesting: years earlier, all six of the ditch companies re-allocated their shares so that one share was equivalent across all ditch companies - any share in the valley yields 3 acre-feet.

The Town Board launched a campaign to convince its residents of the merits of the proposal. Opposition was very fierce, and project proponents spent a great deal of time countering the misinformation spread throughout the community. Eventually, a vote of the residents resulted in approval of the project, with about 75% of the voters in favor of the project. Mr. Moore says that today (after two years of operation) the project is very popular and dissent has all but disappeared.

About 70% of the residents in the old neighborhoods have now tapped into the secondary system. The rate structure on the culinary system was changed from flat rate to a tiered rate to discourage high usage of treated water. Culinary water is metered and the monthly billing is as follows: $10 base fee; $1/1000 for first 10,000 gallons; $2/1000 for next 10,000 gallons, and $3/1000 after that.

Here are some of the benefits already experienced by the users of the system:

- the sewer system previously experienced enormous infiltration due to the high water table in town. In fact, the wastewater plant had reached capacity as a result of the groundwater inflows to the collection system. After installation of the secondary system, water levels have dropped and infiltration has been reduced enough that the present wastewater treatment plant can now accommodate at least 200 more customers.

- the agricultural users are diverting 30-40% less water than they used to, and are yielding more on their fields than ever before. One farmer realized a fourth cutting of alfalfa this year - almost unheard of in this area, and in a drought year no less!

Here are some of the sights from our tour of the Coalville system:

The new combined diversion structure for all six ditches; capacity about 40 cfs. Note the 'chalky' conditions in 'Chalk Creek.'

A new structure to settle out sediments and measure water flow.

Coalville, as seen from new storage reservoir on the northern slope of the valley. By now, it had been raining for a good 30 minutes - the kind of rain we wish we'd get back home more often.

The new storage pond, built to provide peaking storage for the secondary system. Capacity is about 22 acre-feet.

After our tour, we went back to town for a delicious catered meal at "Denise's Restaurant" arranged in advance by John Wilkins-Wells.