Utah orders shutdown of resort drinking water system over public health concerns
Wed, August 5, 2026 at 12:35 PM
UpdatedWed, August 5, 2026 at 1:09 PM
The City of Florence has lifted a precautionary boil water advisory for customers in the Pine Forest, Parkwood and Olde Mill subdivisions. Officials said testing shows the water is safe for drinking and cooking.
MOAB, Utah (KUTV) —Guests at Sorrel River Ranch in Grand County are under a “Do Not Use” order after Utah regulators determined the resort’s drinking water system posed an immediate risk to public health, citing failures in water treatment, monitoring and certified operation
On July 31, the Utah Division of Drinking Water issued an emergency administrative order directing Sorrel River Ranch Water Company to immediately stop operating its surface water treatment plant, stop providing culinary water through its distribution system and provide an alternate
The agency also rated the system “Not Approved,” the state’s lowest compliance designation for public water systems
The order, first states the community water system serves about 260 people through 48 service connections and relies on a single surface water intake from the Colorado River
State officials said the treatment plant had been operating without a certified operator and identified multiple failures that they concluded created an immediate and significant danger to public health
According to the order, state officials were alerted July 29 after receiving reports that the system was without water, staff had been instructed to wash dishes with swimming pool water, and storage tanks had reportedly been filled with hauled water from an unknown
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The Division of Drinking Water sent an inspector who found the water system no longer had a certified operator on record and that employees currently operating the treatment plant were not certified
The inspector concluded chemical feed pumps had likely failed before July 28, causing additional treatment failures
The order also describes a significant treatment failure involving aluminum sulfate, or alum, a chemical used in the treatment process
Investigators found the alum had converted into a thick gel instead of remaining a liquid, indicating a mixing system had failed
According to the state, that failure likely allowed untreated surface water to bypass clarification and filtration, compromising the plant’s primary barrier against waterborne pathogens
State regulators cited numerous deficiencies, including failure to report an emergency, failure to maintain administrative contact information, operation without a certified treatment plant operator, missing operational and chemical dosing records, failure to monitor required chlorine disinfection levels, malfunctioning instrumentation, uncalibrated turbidity meters and interruptions in the treatment process that could allow contaminated water into the distribution system
The emergency order requires Sorrel River Ranch to post a Tier 1 “Do Not Use” public notice within 24 hours, provide bottled drinking water to residents, obtain state approval before hauling water, hire a certified operator, restore required monitoring and recordkeeping, install a functioning chlorine analyzer and complete all required compliance sampling before service can resume
The state’s public notice instructs customers not to drink or use the water for any culinary purposes, including food preparation, brushing teeth, showering or drinking, until the system is determined to be safe
The emergency order took effect immediately and will remain in force unless stayed or modified through the state’s administrative process
Jason Roma, the General Manager of Sorrel River Ranch Resort said in a statement, “Sorrel River Ranch is aware of the concerns regarding its water system. The safety of our guests and employees remains our highest priority. We are cooperating fully with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and other applicable health authorities and are taking all required corrective actions. As this is an active regulatory matter, we are unable to comment further at this time. We remain committed to resolving the matter promptly and in full accordance with all regulatory requirements.”
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