After 20 Years Of Drought, Utahns Still Use More Water Per Capita Than Anyone But ID Residents

[hatrack]

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For more than 20 years, almost without exception, Utah has experienced abnormally dry conditions. And for most of that time, large swaths of the state have endured moderate to severe drought. Scientists refer to it as the “millennium drought” — pinning the start to about the year 2000 — and researchers at Utah State University wrote recently that, thanks to climate change, temperatures will continue to rise and drought and wildfire will become more common.

To some extent, I think this is a wake-up call to state government,” Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, told me last week. “The present condition right now is not unique. It’s not a surprise. It’s been the norm since 2000,” he said. “Scientists and the majority of water managers in the West take it deadly seriously. Everyone projects into the future and says, ‘This may be the way it will be or it may be worse than this.’ But we should not view this as a one-off situation.”

If scientists and western water officials are taking it seriously, though, Utah residents aren’t getting the message. Utah is the second-driest state, behind only Nevada, yet residents use more water per capita than any other state but Idaho, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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On top of that, water is heavily subsidized by property taxes paid to the various water districts. In some cases half to as much as 80% of the cost of operating a water district has traditionally been paid for out of property taxes. The problem with that is, again, if you’re paying the same regardless of how much water you use, there’s no incentive to use less. On top of that, the data we’re basing our decision-making on has been tenuous. In 2015, for example, state officials mistakenly provided legislative auditors with the water usage data for Saratoga Springs, N.Y., instead of Saratoga Springs, Utah.

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https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2021/03/27/robert-gehrke-utah-is/

[progree]

1. "yet residents use more water per capita ..." Just to be clear, most of that is for agricultural use

when I first read that, "residents use more", I thought of residential use, like watering lawns.

our agricultural uses (which still consume roughly 80% of our water),

At least I think from reading the article they are talking about per capita water usage including agricultural, commercial, industrial, residential, but I could be wrong. Would be nice to know. I Googled the USGS Survey, but gave up after 10 minutes.