A massive 9.6-mile canal overhaul was sold to the public as a win for everyone. But residents say they haven't seen a drop of the benefit — the water district that serves your home has gone to court to find out why, and a severe drought is making the whole situation even more urgent.
Most people in Vernal know something big has been happening to the Ashley Central Canal. You've seen the construction equipment. You've watched the trees come down along 1500 West. You've driven past the torn-up road shoulders and the freshly buried pipe. If you live near Kids Canal, you've felt it personally — the shady stretch of open water that generations of Vernal families grew up alongside has been changed forever.
But Kids Canal is just one small piece of a project that is far larger than most residents realize.
The Ashley Valley Watershed Project involves piping 9.6 miles of the Ashley Central Canal, pressurizing 6.3 miles of it, constructing two large debris and detention basins to control stormwater and flash flooding, and building three miles of new recreational trails. The project pipes the entire Ashley Central Canal from the Thornburg Diversion all the way to the last irrigation turnout. The section between 500 North and Main Street — what most residents know as Kids Canal — is just one stretch of the full 9.6-mile project.
This is one of the biggest infrastructure projects the Ashley Valley has seen in decades. It touches farms, neighborhoods, roads, and the creek itself across a wide swath of the valley. And yet many residents are left with a simple, nagging question: with nearly 1,000 acre-feet of water being saved every year across this massive project — where is it going? And why hasn't anyone in this community seen the benefit?
The answer buried in public documents, court filings, and a letter sent directly to customers is more troubling than officials have let on.
The Water That Was Being Lost — And Who Captures It Now
According to Ashley Central Irrigation Company's own grant application documents, the open canal system was losing approximately 980 acre-feet of water per year to seepage and evaporation. The stated purpose of piping the canal underground was to conserve that water for its irrigation shareholders.
That is nearly one billion gallons of water every year that used to seep into the ground, feed the soil along the canal corridor, keep trees alive, and return naturally to Ashley Creek — now being captured and kept inside a private company's pressurized pipe system.
The official line is straightforward: the saved water stays with existing shareholders. But here is the question Vernal residents have every right to ask: if the project saves nearly 1,000 acre-feet of water every year, and that water goes exclusively back to a private company's existing shareholders — who are those shareholders, and what did the rest of the community get?
The Water District That Serves Your Home Can't Buy More Water — And Now There's a Drought
Here is where the story gets serious — especially right now.
In April 2026, the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District held a public rate hearing to discuss drought conditions, water allotments, restrictions, and new summer rates. The meeting lasted three hours, after which the board adopted new 2026 water rates. The western United States is in severe drought conditions, and the Vernal area is feeling it directly.
At the exact moment the valley needs more water flexibility, the water district that serves your home is locked in a legal battle over its ability to buy any water at all.
District Manager Ryan Goodrich explained that the district was formed in 1974 and didn't deliver its first water until the 1980s. In the early days of the district, water was required to be dedicated for new development — a practice that was active until the early 1990s when the irrigation companies enacted policies to prevent transfer of water shares into the district name. In 2014 the district acquired the last available block of Red Fleet water available to them, adding an additional 1,120 acre-feet of water to the already owned 500 acre-feet.
In plain English: the water district that serves your tap has been blocked from buying more water for over thirty years. The last time it was able to acquire a meaningful new water supply was over a decade ago. Meanwhile the valley keeps growing, more homes keep getting built, and the drought keeps tightening.
A Lawsuit, Stripped Voting Rights, and an Eight Times Price Hike
The situation deteriorated so badly that the water district sued the canal company. The lawsuit claims Ashley Central Irrigation Company is in breach of a contract signed in 1983, in which it was agreed that shares of Central Irrigation could be turned into the District for culinary use and that those shares would be assessed on an equal basis to the primary shares. Central Irrigation has disregarded this contract, altering its bylaws by creating an M class of stock that can be assessed at a different rate than primary shares.
The price being demanded is staggering. Several companies openly indicated an intent to increase assessments on shares dedicated to the District anywhere from five to eight times the normal rate — meaning if a normal assessment on a share is $100, these companies would charge the District $800 without justification. This, the District said, will result in increased rates for every District customer.
Read that again. The canal company wants to charge the water district that serves your home up to eight times the normal rate just to buy access to water. And on top of that, the canal companies have passed bylaws and articles of incorporation that strip a shareholder of their rights when they convert irrigation water to culinary purposes.
So even if the district paid the inflated price, it would have zero say in how that water is managed going forward.
The District has paid assessments under protest and is seeking a refund of these payments. The District has attempted to resolve these issues with Central Irrigation without success. Because of this the District will not accept shares from Central Irrigation for culinary connections until Central Irrigation honors its contractual obligations.
That last sentence matters enormously. It means right now, today, while Vernal is in a drought and water allotments are being restricted, the district has stopped accepting water shares from the canal company entirely. New development in the valley is effectively on hold until this dispute is resolved.
The People Who Were at the Table in 1983
Brownie Tomlinson, a longtime water district board member who actually signed the original 1983 agreement, stated clearly: "It was agreed upon at that particular time that when Ashley Valley needed water they could buy it. And to this point here, Central has made it inoperable to buy water stocks because we don't have voting rights. Since I signed this contract and Ralph Walker signed it, we have not been able to get what we want and accomplish what we desire of getting and buying water from them."
He also made a point that strikes at the heart of the canal piping project's fairness: Tomlinson stated that because Ashley Valley Water District gets its water at the springs and does not use the infrastructure of the Irrigation Company, they should not be charged for piping the canals and the canal's upkeep.
In other words — the water district that serves your home is being asked to help pay for a piping project that it doesn't even use and from which it receives no water.
The Canal Company's Side
To be fair and complete, the canal company sees things very differently.
Canal company President Wayne Simper stated: "The District's lawsuit is misguided, premature, and represents a waste of the District's resources. There is no reason for this lawsuit as the District and its lawyer are mistaken on the law and the facts. The Company has repeatedly asked to sit down and discuss this matter with the District. In fact, the Company arranged a meeting to discuss all this in late April, and the District did not show up. They went dark. The Company has NOT raised assessments."
On pricing, Simper stated: "We have proposed 2 to 3 times assessments for domestic and industrial use over the irrigation use, which is common practice all over the state of Utah. The Shareholders Assessment Act of Utah protects them from us raising the rates above what is equitable. We can't charge something that's not equitable. They have a different right than the irrigators have. They use their water differently."
Those are legitimate points. Differential pricing for agricultural versus municipal water is common in Utah. And if the district truly missed a scheduled negotiation meeting, that raises real questions about whether both sides have genuinely tried to resolve this.
But none of that fully answers the core concern — that a 9.6-mile project conserving nearly 1,000 acre-feet of water annually is moving forward while the community's own water district can't access more water at a fair price during a drought year.
What This Means for You Right Now
If you live in Vernal, Maeser, Ashley Valley, or Jensen and get your water from the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District, this lawsuit directly affects you in three concrete ways.
Your water rates just went up. The April 2026 rate hearing resulted in new 2026 water rates being adopted — partly because drought conditions are straining the system and partly because the district is operating under severe supply constraints.
New development around you may be slowing down. Because the district won't accept water shares with unfair restrictions attached, builders who need to dedicate water for new connections are hitting a wall. That affects housing availability and economic growth in the entire valley.
And the long-term water security of the community — your ability to turn on the tap in ten years and have water come out — depends on this lawsuit being resolved in a way that gives the district fair access to water at a fair price. If the canal company wins and the eight times assessment rate stands, the district's ability to serve a growing Vernal community becomes deeply uncertain.
The Question the Whole Valley Deserves an Answer To
The Ashley Valley Watershed Project was funded in part by public money — federal NRCS grants, Vernal City dollars, Uintah County dollars, and UDOT funds. The public received real benefits: flood control infrastructure and a recreational trail system.
But the community also lost something — the open water, the trees, the natural seepage that fed the creek and the land for over a century. The water that was conserved is locked inside a private company's system. The district serving your home cannot access it without paying up to eight times the normal rate with no right to vote on how it is managed. And now the valley is in a drought.
Somebody is benefiting from nearly 1,000 acre-feet of conserved water every year. The people of the Ashley Valley — who live alongside this canal, pay taxes that funded parts of this project, and drink water from a district that has been fighting for fair access for decades — deserve a full, public, plain-language accounting of where that water is going and who it is serving.
The lawsuit is still working its way through the courts. The drought is here now. And the pipes keep running.
Editor's note: This article is based on publicly available documents including the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District's official press release and customer letter, Basin Now reporting from September and October 2025, the District's official website, federal NRCS project filings, and statements made at public candidate forums. The Ashley Central Irrigation Company has not provided a public response specifically addressing how the conserved water savings are allocated among shareholders. We invite all parties to address these questions publicly. Residents with information are encouraged to come forward.
Sources: Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District official press release (ashleywatersewerut.gov), Ashley Valley Water District customer letter (Basin Now, August 2024), Basin Now Water War coverage (October 7 and 17, 2025), Ashley Valley Watershed Project NRCS documentation, District public rate hearing notice (April 2026), Ashley Valley Water District FAQ page.