Utah Debates Solutions to Water Shortage

Utah policymakers are facing increasing urgency to conserve and replenish water supplies in the state as its population grows faster than any other state's and groundwater supplies dwindle. As Brett Walton reports, state officials are proposing pipeline projects that would bring water from distant sources. "But public interest advocates assert that spending billions of dollars to build pipelines to transport water from distant sources is foolish."

Each pipeline project raises questions that are fundamental to life in the arid western United States, and essential for Utahans to consider before the current homebuilding spree establishes land use and development patterns that will influence water demand for a generation: How do growing communities live with limited water? And will past behaviors be adapted to new climate and demographic realities?

Conservationists argue the state can do more to reduce water usage and curb waste before building new pipelines and reservoirs that could damage the environment, use taxpayer funds, and provide only short-term solutions to the state's growing water crisis. According to Walton, "In 2019, the Utah Legislature ordered a report on actions that could help preserve the Great Salt Lake and its wetlands." The report outlined several recommended conservation measures, including: "expanded metering of residential irrigation water, better data collection to understand how water is being used, bringing land-use planners and water providers together, reducing lawn sizes."