SALT LAKE CITY -- Fires and floods caused by heavy rains have contaminated the single water source for about 1,200 residents of the Navajo Nation in Utah's far southeastern corner.

The Navajo Mountain spring, which runs off the mountain that straddles the Utah-Arizona border, has been unusable for nearly three weeks, San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams said. Ash and other debris has filled the spring and clogged filters at a treatment plant that provides water to area residents, he said.

That's caused an immediate shortage of water.

To solve the problem temporarily, San Juan County hauled four tankers of water from the Inscription House spring, which is 40 miles south on the Navajo National Monument in Arizona, and brought in four semitrailers worth of bottled drinking water.

"It was an absolute dire emergency," Adams said. "There were people with no access to water, and we felt that as a county it was imperative to do everything we could to help these people."

The Navajo Mountain spring will eventually clean itself, but the problem is a recurring one.

"All it will take at this point is a good rainstorm, and we're all washed out again," Adams said.

A permanent solution has been proposed in the form a pipeline, that would draw water from the Inscription House spring, Adams said.

The project has an estimated cost of $8 million, which would come from state and federal funds. It could take up to two years to build.

Utah's Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, Public Safety Commissioner Scott Duncan and state Rep. Brad Kind, D-Price, visited the site Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Herbert's Chief of Staff Joe Demma said any long-term solution should be addressed collaboratively, with officials from state, county and federal governments, including the Navajo Nation.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D5.