The Graveyard Wash Permits Have Been Approved

Washington County Water Conservancy District Director Zach Renstrom today announced on “Southern U-Talk with Dale Desmond” that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the final permit to allow construction to begin on the Graveyard Wash Reservoir in Washington County. 

“FIVE-YEAR PROCESS”

After the show, Zach said, “In partnership with St. George City, we have both been working on trying to get the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to start construction. It was the last permit we needed from the federal government. It has been a five-year process. With obtaining that permit, we should be able to start construction this summer or fall.”

REUSE BUILDOUT

Graveyard Wash—just west of Santa Clara—became a key site in Washington County’s long-term “reuse” water strategy: capturing highly treated wastewater and banking it for dry years instead of letting it flow downstream. The concept ties back to the region’s reuse buildout that included a dedicated reuse plant and major pipeline infrastructure constructed in the mid-2000s as part of a water-rights settlement framework.

LISTEN NOW: ZACH RENSTROM ON SOUTHERN U-TALK

The modern “build” process for the Graveyard Wash Reservoir has been permitting-heavy because the project sits in a sensitive wash/riparian setting. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice describes a roughly 82-acre site near Old Highway 91, about 1,100 feet upstream of the wash’s confluence with the Santa Clara River—triggering federal review (See: Clean Water Act, Section 404) and related environmental documentation. 

By early 2025, the Santa Clara City Council updates still referenced the project being in the Corps’ permitting process. Reporting in 2024–2025 described the reservoir as roughly a 2,100 acre-foot “water bank” for recycled supplies and indicated construction activity was underway west of Santa Clara as part of a broader reservoir-and-pipeline system.