Starvation Reservoir is located on the Strawberry River a few miles above its confluence with the Duchesne River. The Duchesne Valley Water Treatment Plant (DVWTP) pumps water from the reservoir to produce drinking water for over 60 percent of the residents within Duchesne County. Severe thunderstorm runoff from the 2018 Dollar Ridge Fire burn scar has carried thousands of tons of eroded sediment and debris into the Strawberry River and Starvation Reservoir. These materials have degraded the water quality of the reservoir. This change in water quality makes it very difficult at times to treat the water to meet drinking water standards.
The DVWTP Process Improvement Process (PIP) will add new processes to remove most of the sediment and debris from the water before it advances through the treatment plant. As a result, the current processes will then be able to easily produce drinking water meeting the required standards. The PIP will add a new Flocculation and Sedimentation Process Building, a new Chemical Building, and new solids handling facilities. The new Chemical Building will house storage tanks for chemicals used in the water treatment process and the processes that mix the treatment chemicals into the water. The solids handling facilities include additional lagoons for handling the increased volume of material removed from the water and a pump station to return the lagoon decant water to either the head of the plant or to the reservoir.
This project was designed by Carollo Engineers and is being constructed by Bodell Construction, Inc. The project design started in November 2018 and construction started in April 2020, right after the COVID-19 shutdown began. The anticipated completion date is May 26, 2022. This $28.5M project is being funded by a $4M grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an $18M loan from the Utah Drinking Water Board, a $3.5M loan from the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB) with the remaining $3M coming from Central Utah Water Conservancy District funds.