More than 200 American Fork residents lined the walls and sat on the floor during a special town meeting Tuesday night to learn the details of a proposed $47 million pressurized irrigation system to be built over three years.

If approved by voters in November, average water rates on quarter-acre lots would increase from $21 to $36 a month, said Mayor Heber Thompson.

The city is now 226 gallons per minute short of what the state requires the city to provide for its residents, Thompson said. Next year that deficit is expected to increase to almost 900 gallons per minute.

"You have a choice to vote for or against the bond," he said. "If you vote against, water shortages may become common."

Without the new system, the city could be forced to ration water, curtail growth and lose sections of the city through annexation to neighboring cities with sufficient water, he said.

"We don't have much choice," he said. "Our feeling is that the city cannot delay action any longer."

Residents will not be forced to sign up for the pressurized system, but those who don't will face steep hikes in the price of their culinary water, he said.

If the city would have built the system in 1996, when first proposed, it would have cost less than $10 million, said Councilman Dale Gunther. The city cannot afford to put the system off any longer.

If the proposal is defeated at the polls, the city could pay for the system with revenue bonds, which don't require a vote of the people, or could be forced to install a culinary treatment system and drill new wells, which would cost much more over time, Thompson said.

Whether the proposal is approved by voters or not, residents will see a $5 per month increase in their water bills to fund the purchase of Central Utah Project water needed for future growth, Thompson said.

Many residents who spoke out at the meeting said the city should eliminate the need for the system by not allowing any new homes, an option the mayor said was against state law.

Many residents also said the proposal to bill residents for the pressurized water based on lot size is unfair and does not promote conservation. Residents should pay for what they use, rather than the size of their lot, several people said.

"I see a real problem for charging on lot size instead of usage," said Jack Cummings. In addition, "there are only five months of the year you need to put water on the yard but you are getting charged every month whether you are using it or not."

Thompson said the cost to residents would be the same whether they paid only during the summer usage months or spread payments out over the whole year.

"I think the rate schedule you have is discriminatory against people like myself who have large lots and small homes," said Paul Walgren. "I come from an era where you make do or do without."

Some residents thanked city officials for providing a solution to the city's water problems.

"When I came in here I was dead set against the secondary system, but your arguments tonight have convinced me otherwise," said Tori Bahoravitch.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.