Water Conservation in the West and Utah

The water drops below show the yearly water savings for other communities in the Southwest and how long it took them to achieve these goals. Utah’s proposed conservation goal pales in comparison to what our neighbors have been doing, clearly showing that our water leadership is decades behind.

These astonishing differences show why the 2% for Utah campaign is needed and that, as the nations highest water users per person, it is an easily attainable goal. Utah’s leadership needs to show us that it cares about water and set a serious water conservation goal.

Learn about the Water Conservation Plan by the Utah Division of Water Resources

The Utah Division of Water Resources will be releasing a report in September regarding Utah’s water conservation goals over the next 50 years. After close examination their goals have been found to be incredibly weak, especially when compared to the billions of dollars in spending they propose for the Bear River Development and Lake Powell Pipeline.

With such anemic water saving goals put forth by the Division of Water Resources, Utah will be falling behind other communities around the west in water saving initiatives, thereby jeopardizing the water supply for future generations of Utahns.

The table below shows the goals for water reduction in various regions around the state of Utah, set by the Division of Water Resources. If you look closely you can see that in the Salt Lake region, the Division has set a meager goal of 20% reduction in water use over 50 years. While at first they may sound ambitious, that translates to a meager 0.39% water reduction goal per person per year.

Increasing that goal by even the slightest through sensible water saving practices could save taxpayers billions of dollars in infrastructure costs.