For years, residents of the Cedar Point neighborhood in Apple Valley have dealt with brown, contaminated water. Now, when they turn on the tap, the water will run clear.
Town leaders, water managers, engineers and county and state officials gathered to celebrate a new six-mile water pipeline on Monday. The recently completed project delivers safe drinking water from Apple Valley’s main water system to roughly 170 homes in the Cedar Point area, according to the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
“It’s life changing for this town,” said Apple Valley Mayor Mike Farrar. “I mean, these people have been dealing with brown, stinky, contaminated water for 15-plus years.”
(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Apple Valley Mayor Mike Farrar cuts a ribbon at a ceremony for a new pipeline that will deliver clean water to the Cedar Point neighborhood on Monday, July 28, 2025. Apple Valley city council members, County Commissioner Gil Almquist and representatives from the Washington County Water Conservancy District and Utah Division of Drinking Water joined the ceremony.
The Cedar Point area, roughly 40 miles east of St. George, has had a series of issues with its water supply. And many residents are retirees who bought homes in the neighborhood without knowing about the water contamination, Farrar said.
In 2023, taps in the community ran dry for three days due to maintenance issues, according to Farrar. At the time, Farrar was the town’s planning commission chairman and would soon be elected mayor. “After that happened, I told residents, ‘It’s never gonna happen again,’” he said.
Soon, it became clear the area wasn’t just dealing with a supply issue, though. Once water service was restored, the Utah Division of Drinking Water ran tests on the water and found that it did not meet state or federal drinking standards for contaminants such as cancer-causing radium.
“It’s no longer just brown, stinky water,” Farrar said. “This problem is way bigger.”
Once the division found the water was unhealthy, they declared an emergency, and Apple Valley partnered with the state, contractors and the Washington County Water Conservancy District to figure out the best solution. The district doesn’t provide water to Apple Valley but oversaw the project at the request of the state.
Zach Renstrom, general manager of the district, said this pipeline is relatively small compared to other water infrastructure projects the district has overseen. “But we knew the impact would be so great for these people,” he added. “It is really a life changing experience for them to have water, that they can actually go and get drinking water out of a tap and not have to be worried about it.”
(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Zach Renstrom, general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District, speaks at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new water pipeline to the Cedar Point neighborhood in Apple Valley on Monday, July 28, 2025.
The pipeline project cost $3.37 million, which was “much less expensive than building a treatment plant,” said Michael Grange, the division’s manager for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund — an Environmental Protection Agency program that helped fund the Apple Valley pipeline.
“From the state side, we’re just glad that they’ve rectified the contaminant issue for the residents on this end of the system,” Grange said. “We are so happy that it’s done for them.”
Note to readers • This story has been updated to correct the name of the Division of Drinking Water