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Garfield County Commission September 23


GARFIELD COUNTY –
The horrific traffic accident near Bryce on September 20 elicited the commissioners’ comments about and appreciation for all first responders from nearby and elsewhere. Commissioner David Tebbs recognized a private resident, Robert Driedonks from Bryce Wildlife Adventure, who was among the first to hear the accident and arrive on scene. Law enforcement and emergency personnel from Garfield, as well as Kane, Beaver, and Piute Counties aided in the response.

Commissioner Tebbs recognized the individuals, nearly all volunteer, their employers who supported their staff taking off from work, the hospitals, and law enforcement. He said a neurosurgeon at Dixie Regional treated 11 patients from the crash and had expected many more fatalities than occurred. “Our people saved lives that day,” Tebbs said. Commissioner Jerry Taylor echoed Tebbs, expressing worry for the families who lost loved ones, as well as for the responders and other people who were on site and witnessed the devastation. “Be conscious of them,” he said. “And it’s not just the big bus crashes …. Our first responders are there every day. I appreciate what they do, and the positive impact they have.” As Sheriff Perkins said, “They’ve spent 1000s of hours training. They’re invested in our communities. Not one night a pager hasn’t gone off somewhere in this county.”

Commissioner Leland Pollock said he was immediately impressed with the response. “I called the sheriff first, and asked what I could do…They had it handled… The hospital administrator: 30 people showed up to help; they had it handled. …Tammy Barton, with Emergency Services: They had it handled.” The Bryce airport was ready to deal with life flight concerns. Taylor mentioned several “minor miracles,” such as the availability of three triage nurses from St. George who happened to be in Panguitch that day for training and the EMT from Tropic who spoke Mandarin. Pollock read a text he’d received that day from State Rep. Karen Kwan, offering translation assistance from Utah’s Chinese community and thanking the first responders of Garfield County.

Tebbs announced a peer support and debriefing scheduled for responders. He asked Sheriff Perkins to reach out to private individuals outside law enforcement who might benefit from some post-incident support.

In the additional Board reports, Commissioner Tebbs talked about the library board and community library programs. Although the Panguitch library isn’t open, he said 70 kids participated in the summer reading program. “The Bookmobile’s doing great, Escalante library is used a lot.” He said “a lot of people in the county don’t have access to Kindle devices and depend on our libraries.”

Tebbs met with the high school counselors from Piute and Garfield School Districts to start this year’s Career Day planning. Immediate changes include inviting Wayne County to participate and inviting high school juniors as well as seniors. He also questioned comments he’d heard about local businesses and federal agencies speaking against year-round advertising and promotion of Garfield County. “We want get out of seasonality for our businesses,” Tebbs said.

Commissioner Pollock opened his report by noting impending revisitation of the Dixie National Forest Motorized Travel Plan, saying he hoped he’d caboshed its return by making a call to an official in D.C.

As Joint Jails Committee Chairman for the state, Pollock said Garfield County has the model county jail in the state, with the lowest recidivism rate. He credited programming and treatment as making the difference in inmates’ success upon release. He also acknowledged Chris Hatch, who received Jail Commander of the Year award.

Next item was Public Works, as reported by Brian Bremner, County Engineer. Bremner needed approval on a UDOT request to combine two existing grants for Hole in the Rock road projects entailing approximately $2.3M for road and culvert improvements. The commissioners approved the request. Commissioner Tebbs asked Bremner about repairs needed on the Red Canyon bike path. Bremner explained the patching process and the search for materials that have appropriate flexibility to handle temperature fluctuations throughout the year.

Planning Department, Kaden Figgins. First topic was adoption of Zoning Ordinance amendment 2019-11, updating Planning and Zoning fees. New Conditional Use Permits (CUP) will increase from $50 to $100; renewals will be $50. Conditional Use Permits for new home-based businesses will be $100. Figgins said the last time fees were adjusted was 2003 and that these increases were on the low side compared to those of nearby counties. The Commission voted to adopt the amendments.

The Commission approved all eight short-term rental applications on the agenda: Doug Miller, two units east of Panguitch; Karen Gifford, Mammouth Creek; Terry Walsh, north of Paunsaugunt Cliffs subdivision; Craig Boyce, old town Hatch; Jennifer and Charlie Wilson, Boulder; John Richards, North Creek Rd, and also permits for the various lots making up the Slot Canyons Inn enterprise.

Figgins described the proposed Short-Term Rental ordinance that will come before the commission October 14 in public hearing. He highlighted a few items from the ordinance: required safety inspections, egress requirements, smoke and monoxide detectors, fire suppression, trash and parking stipulations, and enforcement. A $150 fee will be required for all short-term rentals to cover the newly required county inspection, along with a conditional use permit and business license. If a property manager is handling the property(ies), the manager also needs a business license. Failure to comply will result in 1) notification from the county, followed by 2) a letter from the attorney, and finally, 3) a Class C misdemeanor charge, carrying potential fine and imprisonment. The proposed STR ordinance is available on the county’s website.

Representatives from Utah Division of Water Quality—Robert Beers, on site program manager; and Dan Hall, groundwater section manager;—presented information on the ongoing Bryce area ground water and septic studies. Beers said the impetus for the wastewater study had been the numerous proposals during early 2018 for new hotels in the Bryce area and concern about the potential wastewater impacts on drinking water quality. The bottom line, upon conclusion of the studies, is that the Bryce area will receive new criteria regulating wastewater containment/treatment for new development.

Dan Hall said the USGS report on the Upper Sevier basin shows Class 1, pristine, high quality water throughout the basin. [This is generally noted as Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, which is the total of organic and inorganic substances other than pure H2O molecules. Class 1 water TDS is 0-500 mg/liter.] However, Hall said looking more specifically at the Bryce Canyon area, the nature of its permeable soils makes it more vulnerable to contamination. As a permitting program, DWQ evaluates control and containment, such as lagoons or liners. He said individual septic systems have no containment features; they will ultimately release contaminants into the groundwater. Hall noted the existing businesses in the area and said the potential problem lies in the aggregation of new contaminant sources. Once the aquifer study is complete and more site-specific information is known, criteria can be set for the effluent discharge. Typically wastewater discharge uses concentration of nitrates as the measurement, with 2.5 mg/liter being the default treatment standard until more contextual information is known.

Beers described Large Underground Wastewater Disposal Systems (LUDS), which are septic systems on a larger scale. They still consist of tanks, usually multiple, and leach fields, but the difference is in the treatment between tanks and in the pressurized distribution of the effluent. If a developer can present a valid case for their site-specific handling of wastewater within the area they control, DWQ will consider that. Hall noted the problem created by some of the development plans that are defined in phases. He said they often don’t define their end product and wastewater planning as a whole. They need to provide more information on how the contamination is being diluted. Hall said the department is trying to provide flexibility on the site-specific properties, as long as they can meet general criteria and demonstrate no harm to current beneficial users.

Beers said existing properties in the area are handling approximately 40K gallons of wastewater per day. Estimating usage at 2/3 of the year, that means about 30 acre feet of wastewater is currently receiving minimal treatment, i.e. standard septic systems. He said the new developments proposed so far—an RV park, four hotels, and cabin properties—add another 80K gal/day, or 23M gal/yr, or 70 acre ft of wastewater being put in the ground. Hall said it would be “down the road when you’d see the problem, and by then, it’s too late (in terms of contaminated drinking water). Wastewater lagoons don’t fully solve the problem; there is still contamination, but it is localized, and therefore somewhat easier to treat, he said.

What are the next steps? Hall said the completion of the Utah Geological Survey studies comes first. DWQ reviews that study to be able to establish wastewater criteria. He noted that other counties have adopted septic tank density ordinances, which use the science to define an area’s dilutative capacity based on acreage.

Commissioner Tebbs asked how any development can now be approved, referring to septic systems in general. Beers cited a concept approval they recently issued for two hotels that described how they could reach the standard on nitrate contamination. They defined a process that could work, but it referenced technology not yet seen in Utah. They won’t be issued a construction permit until the concept can prove out. He said smaller projects can be reviewed on a case by case basis. In the case of an existing RV park that wants to expand, Beers said the department would look at their plans for combining existing and new wastewater, additional treatment plans being considered, etc. However, he said if there’s no pressure distribution and no treatment, it likely wouldn’t be accepted.

The notion of consolidating treatment was discussed. Hall said centralization could be better. Otherwise, there are individual septic treatments all around the county and management would be needed for each. Beers mentioned the option of creating Special Service Districts (SSDs) which establish a public entity, with public managers and operators on site who are familiar with the system. He said, “Once they get over 25-35K gal/day they can’t be on a septic system. They have to look at lagoons and those require additional monitoring and sampling.”

Panguitch resident Harshad Desai appeared before the commission to appeal his GRAMA request for a tax rate schedule on his two properties in Panguitch. He said he didn’t think he should have to come before the commission to request something that was supposed to be public record anyway. The documents had been produced earlier in a hearing, but now those same documents were being withheld from him. County assessors Kade Fullmer and Joe Thompson claimed the information Desai seeks are work files and not part of public record. They said Desai can search for any tax information on any parcel using the public terminals. Pollock ended the discussion saying the commission would “take the matter under advisement and issue a written decision.”

The Commission went into a second executive session, after which they announced the Bristlecone Well Land Use agreement had been withdrawn and a BLM contract mentioned on the agenda is still being worked out with the sheriff, so no action was taken.

—Insider

Published in the October 3rd, 2019 issue of the Insider.

 

 

 

 

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