This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
State help is on its way to the town of Torrey, which has run out of water following a water main break.
The town's storage tanks were cut off from the spring that feeds the municipal water system when the main broke. The leak has since been repaired, but the storage tanks remain depleted, said Marie Owens, director of the Utah Division of Drinking Water.
On Tuesday, state officials began trucking water to the community just outside Capitol Reef National Park.
Owens said it was not clear when the water main broke, only that it caused the tanks to be drained.
Since then, she said, Torrey has used water at such a rate that the source spring has been unable to replenish the system. The loss of water pressure has left more than half of the town without running water for the last four days.
The town has tried shutting off the water system overnight to refill the water tanks, Owens said, but as soon as it is turned back on, residents use all the available water.
Owens said the town's drinking water could become contaminated each time the system is shut down. Though there is no indication of contamination thus far, the portion of the town that does have water is under a boil order. Commercial food service has been shut down and hotel guests are not allowed to brush their teeth.
According to an emergency declaration issued by Wayne County, "response operations continue throughout the county and are severely straining all responding agencies" and "the cost and magnitude of responding to and recovering from the impact of this event is far in excess of the county's available resources."
County and Torrey officials said Tuesday they could not provide further comment on the situation, citing the ongoing emergency.
Beginning Tuesday, the Utah Division of Emergency Management will be supplying to the town with potable water to help address the situation, said Joe Dougherty, public information officer for the division.
Three trucks are expected to run 8 hours a day in the supply effort at a cost of more than $3,000 per day. The shipments are expected to continue for approximately one week, according to the Division of Emergency Management.
Owens said the town plans to pump the trucked-in water into the storage tanks in order to get ahead of the community's water use and return the system to normal operations.
Last month, Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, called Torrey residents "hypocrites" for requesting state Community Impact Board funds to update the town's water system. The requested funds come in part from the mining industry, and some residents of the town, Noel said, had objected to the location of a proposed gravel pit.
Noel later said that he did not want to undermine Torrey's request, only to educate residents about the source of the funds.
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