Sadly, the Governor's "Coordinated Action Plan for Water" is Nothing New

On January 13, Governor Cox released his Coordinated Action Plan for Water. Branded as a “groundbreaking effort,” the document is meant to show that Utah’s executive office is on the cutting edge of water policy. However, the governor has not announced large new plans, programs, or strategies for addressing water issues in the state. There is nothing substantially new in the Governor’s plan.

The majority of the document is spent summarizing water management practices that the state has already implemented, and it is done in a way that emphasizes favorable activities like water conservation and downplays unfavorable ones like the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Development. While in reality, the state has spent much more time and effort advancing these diversion projects than it has conservation.

The only novel aspects in the governor’s document are his five “Action Plan” objectives. Not all of these objectives are bad, but they are all fairly feeble and include vague measures like “creating a framework,” “developing needs assessments,” and continuing programs the state is already running. The steps are unfortunately too minor to achieve any significant water savings.

We took a deep dive into the governor’s plan and found some issues:

• 1) Doubles Down on Property Tax Subsidies to Water Suppliers

  The governor emphasizes the important impact water rates have on water consumption but ignores the fact that Utah’s water districts receive money from property tax collections, thereby subsidizing water rates and leading to some of the cheapest water in the nation. The governor does NOT advocate for removing, reducing, or phasing out these subsidies, but rather doubles down on using property taxes as a way to fund water districts. This heavily incentivizes waste. If the governor was serious about using the free market to reduce water use, he would advocate for removing the property tax subsidy and letting water rates reflect the true price of water.

• 2) Covertly Endorses the Lake Powell Pipeline & Bear River Development

  Although the governor spends a lot of time giving lip service to water conservation (print page 15), he nevertheless continues to falsely claim future development proposals, specifically the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Development projects, are necessary and that the state will continue working to develop them (print page 20). He accomplishes this in a sly way by listing the enacting statutes for these projects (§73-28 and §73-28 respectively) rather than mentioning them by name.

• 3) Advocates for More Dams

  The governor advocates for increasing water storage (i.e. building new dams and reservoirs or expanding existing ones) as a means to “increase the availability of water to Utah’s growing communities…” (print page 19). While no specific dams or sites are listed, the governor makes clear that this is a priority. However, what the governor either does not recognize or fails to admit is that climate change will make it so that any new reservoirs cannot practically be filled. Many of Utah’s reservoirs are currently very low, meaning there is plenty of storage space available. The problem is that Mother Nature is providing less and less water to fill that empty space. Proposing to build new dams is like proposing to open a new bank account after you’ve lost your job.

• 4) Does Not Address Climate Change

  The governor’s plan is 24 pages long and contains about 9,000 words. In the entire report, climate change (or “a changing climate,” as the governor puts it) is mentioned twice. Both times, the reference is vague and mentions that “a changing climate” will exacerbate Utah’s water problems. This is certainly true, which is why it is tremendously disappointing to see no mention of climate adaptation plans. Utah is in desperate need of better climate change modeling, research, adaptation strategies, and action to secure our water future in the face of climate change. Yet, the governor’s plan provides none of that.

• 5) Advances “Trojan Horse” Fallacy

  The governor’s plan calls for funding “Utah’s Water Infrastructure Need” (print page 20) and, while it does not give a specific figure, cites Prep60’s 2021 State Water Infrastructure Plan (print page 21). URC research has shown that this infrastructure plan has been highly exaggerated and inflated. Its primary purpose appears to be making very expensive development proposals (i.e. the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Development) seem comparatively minor. The governor should not be advancing this heavily flawed and inflated spending proposal.