Mayor's Message: Riverton's Secondary Water System Saves Taxpayers' Money

By Mayor Trent Staggs

thumb-mayors-message-april-2024Our city’s secondary water system is increasing the quality of life for our taxpayers. Due to the vision and planning of Riverton City elected officials and staff, we are enjoying an amenity that saves money, conserves pre­cious resources, and ensures all are served.

As the weather warms up, the Riv­erton City Public Works Department will start testing and pressurizing the secondary water system. All resi­dents need to close their secondary water valve by April 15 at the latest. If you have any questions, please call 801-208-3162.

Riverton residents enjoy hundreds of dollars in savings during the summer months due to the city’s construction and maintenance of our communitywide secondary water system compared to surrounding cities that don't have a secondary water system. Riverton is one of the only cities in the whole state that has a 100% connection rate of residents to our secondary water system. This helps our taxpayers avoid the expensive use of culinary water on yards and gardens.

Cleanliness
Riverton elected officials and staff have dedicated substantial resourc­es to maintain and improve our prized secondary water system. Al­though the system is for secondary water, the cleanliness of the water is important to cut down on the spread of weeds and other impurities.

In recent years, city staff have installed higher grade filtration in the system to better catch pollutants. All second­ary water is sent through these filter banks before reaching your yard. Lately, staff have worked tirelessly to replace miles of worn out pipes, and also update the filter containers.

Additionally, Riverton has several wells that produce an abundance of water approximately equal to culinary grade water. In this past year, we have increased the amount of water through the secondary water system to your yard to maximize the cleanliness of the water. We are currently in the process of adding another well to the secondary water system.

Pressure
Maintaining proper water pressure for a citywide system is challenging but is accomplished through careful planning and testing by city staff. The city’s water division will soon add pump houses throughout our neighborhood to increase the water pressure. Regulating this pressure is possible with the help of these additional pump houses and appro­priate oversight.

Metering
The State legislature is requiring all secondary water to be metered. Riverton City is close to complet­ing the installation of meters on all residents’ secondary water valves. Each resident will be able to see how much secondary water they use each month. Although the state has mandated meters, we currently are just displaying residents' water use versus recommended usage based on irrigatable acreage. We hope this encourages conservation and allows us to keep our current rates. More individual­ized information will help all of us determine how to cut waste and better conserve our precious water resources in our arid valley.

Riverton City elected officials have taken note of any concerns from residents and residents’ ideas on how to make our secondary water system even better. I am proud of our staff’s hard work in implement­ing our plans that will work to benefit all of us.


Press / Media Contact:
pio@rivertonutah.gov
801-208-3189

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