Utah water leaders don’t know how much water urban residents use, making predictions of future use impossible.
The water use figure used by Utah water salesmen to show we “need” Bear River Development is the #1, highest municipal water use in the country and nearly twice the national average, meaning we could substantially reduce our water use without comprising our quality of life.
Our municipal water supply is growing as we pave irrigated farmland.
Utah has America’s cheapest municipal water rates, afforded by property, sales and income taxes, but spending advocates who receive these taxes fight to keep them in place instead of embracing market economics.
The growth in our water supply from agricultural water conversion, water conservation, basic market economics are being ignored by water development salesmen.
Secondary water use is almost completely unmetered, meaning that most of these users have no idea how much water they use and studies indicate that many use 100% more water than they should be using.
Water use projections by the Division of Water Resources have inflated water use significantly and the figure cited is the water use from the year 2000, 21 years ago. Equally troubling is that this this data doesn’t exist.
Municipal water use accounts for just 7% of the total water use in Utah, with most of this use going to overwater grass landscapes in the summer.
Utah Water Agency leadership has actively blocked water conservation at the Utah Legislature.
Water planners consistently ignore how much less water will be used in the future as the price of water rises with population growth.
