Rezone denied because of inadequate water

Water – a scarce resource in desert Utah – ended up leading to a resounding no vote on a rezone request before the Morgan County Commission Oct. 1.

Porterville residents Roger and Jamie Eggett who are moving to another home in that community had hoped to rezone their 20.31-acre property at 667 West Hardscrabble Court from a split-designation of agricultural and rural residential to all rural residential. They’d like to be able to have their children build homes there, Roger Eggett said but neighbor after neighbor spoke out against the proposed rezone.

Eleven neighbors in all spoke. Most of them said water is an ongoing problem for them already and any new homes in the area would only make it worse.

Although Roger Eggett brought up the possibility of drilling deeper wells in the area to the commission, that just isn’t a realistic possibility, Cindy Carter said. “They can look at those aquifers but you being able to get to them, the depth of them from where you’re at there’s no guarantee right now in the way the process is.” 

Michael Hansen lives next to the Eggetts.

“I have good water just maybe 25 or 30 yards from Eggett’s property,” he said. “Comparatively I’ve good water but I’ve run dry as well, and I have some good neighbors coming up to my well asking for water which of course I give them because as far as I know it takes [until] August/September before mine runs dry.”

Cyd Mikesell has raised a family in Hard Scrabble Court and has often had to choose whether to do dishes and laundry or not, fearing the well will go dry, she said. “That should be an example of why we shouldn’t keep putting stuff out there because no one should have to say, ‘Oh I'm headed to the laundromat today because I don’t have any water to do my laundry.’”

“I have lived there for 23 years and struggled and raised a family on the bare minimum of water and the thought of more going up there and somebody hitting that well again terrifies me,” she said.

Arnold Mikesell also lives in Hard Scrabble Court.

“It’s a crapshoot to hit water,” he said of drilling there. “So there’s been a few of us up here that’s been packing water, and I cross my fingers every time my well turns on that it’s going to pump up and give us water.”

In the end commissioners were convinced by these and other arguments and voted unanimously to deny the rezone request, citing lack of water and road safety as their reasons.

“I don’t know of any other location in the county that’s like Hard Scrabble,” Commissioner Jared Anderson said. “So I don’t know how in my right mind and conscience I can say I think the water will be fine… I could say, ‘Okay sure drill a well 800 feet – you need to look at every single well in the neighborhood. You got to be monitoring that for the next three years and see if it has an effect on it while you’re pulling’ – I mean there’s so many different variables.”

“I do know the water situation up in Porterville,” said Commissioner Blaine Fackrell whose own property is on a well. “I am one of the lucky people; I only had to go down 70 feet but then I had to go 118 to get my water and I’ve got 45 gallons a minute. So I’m one of the lucky people but my dad has 1 gallon a minute, and so I understand where you guys are coming from. I’ve got neighbors on the 30 Highway 66 side that they had to go back in and drill a new well to be able to get water.” 

“I think that it’s … our responsibility to protect our citizens,” said Commissioner Matt Wilson who made the motion to deny the rezone request. “That’s one of our responsibilities as a commission is to protect those citizens and the things that they need, and we need to look at all those things so sometimes it’s not a fun line to walk.”

Commissioner Robert McConnell also concluded that the area was not ready for a rezone.

“I’m kind of persuaded that there is a significant problem here and it’s probably advisable to work on the solution to the problem before we advance rezones that will make it more difficult,” he said. λ