It wasn’t obvious when the drought started. It wasn’t that it didn’t rain when it was expected, it’s that the rainless days continued to pile up.
One local rancher remembered it raining in June last summer and then no more precipitation until snow in November. He remembers taking a herd to graze in a relatively unused pasture only to find it was empty. The grass grew so dry and brittle, it had blown away with the wind.
Skiers remember that November early-season snowfall as a false promise. It wasn’t the first storm of many, as hoped — it just formed a layer of snow that rotted underneath the snowpack and caused one of the deadliest years in local backcountry skiing history.
By the time the winter ended, the snowpack was around 80% of normal — not terrible, but when compounded with the lack of rain last summer, it was the makings of serious drought conditions.
Then came the spring runoff.
The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District oversees much of the water distribution in Summit County. In a normal year, its general manager says, the district stores about 220,000 acre-feet of water from snowmelt. This spring, it stored 7,300 acre-feet.
In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency due to the drought, and the situation hasn’t improved much since then. Cox has said the drought is the worst the state has faced in generations.
For local ranchers, the dry conditions could pose an existential threat. Less water means less hay to feed cows, which means farmers have to buy it on the market. And with a smaller hay crop, prices go up. Additionally, lower-quality feed means the quality and quantity of milk also falls, said one dairy rancher, and milk prices were already down.
It’s another blow to an agriculture industry in Summit County that has already experienced rapid changes and periods of hardship in recent years. But it isn’t the only industry that relies on water to survive, even if the threat the drought presents isn’t as immediate for them.
There hasn’t yet been serious talk of reducing the water allocated to the area’s ski resorts or golf courses, for instance — and indeed, new golf courses are being built near Coalville and near the Jordanelle Reservoir.
A new ski area, Mayflower Mountain Resort, is also starting to take shape on the eastern edge of Deer Valley. Its developer says it has enough water through the Jordanelle Special Service District to supply its needs, with entitlements dating back 30 years or more.
Some municipalities, however, have taken steps to conserve water as a result of shortages. Henefer enacted a six-month building moratorium in 2018, and Oakley implemented a similar measure earlier this year in the face of the current drought. That’s in contrast to the area surrounding the Jordanelle Reservoir, where the rapid pace of development has continued unabated.
“With the drought, it didn’t make a lot of sense to let people keep building,” said Oakley Mayor Wade Woolstenhulme. The city is planning to dig a well to add another source to its supply next year.
Summit County Manager Tom Fisher suggested earlier this year that county officials were considering whether the county and the state as a whole are in the midst a longer-term evolution called aridification, a gradual but consistent change to a drier climate.
County officials have announced their intention to pursue drought-friendly tactics like reducing the amount of grass that can accompany newly built homes, incentivizing homeowners to replace their lawns with less water-intensive landscaping and encouraging xeriscaping.
Though above-average snowfall this winter could end the drought, it won’t be easily forgotten. Officials say it raises concerns about the Park City area’s vulnerability to the whims of Mother Nature, especially with the threat of climate change lurking.
What happens, for example, if it eventually becomes too warm for enough snow at the resorts’ base areas? What happens if there isn’t enough water for the resorts to supplement what Mother Nature provides each winter?
Or as County Council Chair Glenn Wright put it in a meeting this fall, “Projections are, in 2050, the (Salt Lake) Valley will have a climate like Las Vegas without the wine, women and song. In 20 years, (we’re) probably still a ski resort, not a world-class ski resort. By 2050, (we’re) probably not a ski resort.”