Park City, Utah — With recent winters bringing (mostly) warm and dry starts to Utah, Deer Valley has secured a new water contract with Park City.
Parker Malatesta from KPCW reports that Park City and Deer Valley have agreed to a new water usage agreement. Previously, Park City provided Deer Valley with 650 acre feet of water for snowmaking season (November 1st-May 15th). For context, an acre-foot amounts to 326,00 gallons. Now, Deer Valley will receive an additional 300 acre feet of water during this period. As part of this agreement, Deer Valley will pay a minimum of $340,000 annually to Park City. This will allow Deer Valley to open its terrain quicker and have a more reliable snowpack. This new contract expires in May 2030, but the city is allowed to revoke it at any time.
While concern over water usage is valid, Park City noted in a staff report that they have “robust and diverse water rights and water source portfolio built proactively
over the past 40 years to provide the resources necessary to ensure Park City’s future
and stable access to water.” The report also stated that this is not anticipated to have any impact on “the system overall, other than helping stabilize future rate increases and increasing Deer Valley’s ability to make snow during low snow years.” It should also be noted that most water used for snowmaking ends up returning to the watershed.
This water won’t apply for the East Village expansion, which has a state-of-the-art snowmaking infrastructure system. This terrain zone gets its water from the Provo River, with that agreement being with the Jordanelle Special Service District.
Deer Valley continues work on the East Village expansion, with eighty trails and seven new lifts scheduled to open next winter. The Utah ski resort has also announced that the Snow Park village redevelopment project won’t start this summer, as they’re still finalizing the process of getting the needed permits.
Image Credits: Deer Valley Resort
