St. George \u2022 Water managers in southern Utah\u2019s most populous county can ill afford to delay approval of a water shortage plan, not with the area mired in extreme drought and what forecasters say could be another dismal water year fast approaching. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s Conserve Southwest Utah officials\u2019 warning to the Washington County Water Conservancy District and its eight member cities, which were optimistic they would have a plan in place last April but now pin their hopes on getting one approved by the end of the year. <\/p>\n
Karen Goodfellow, Conserve Southwest Utah\u2019s vice president and water team manager, said the district and its member cities need to get it done much quicker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan needs to be in place sooner rather than later,\u201d Goodfellow said. \u201cIt should have been done back in the spring. But some of the reluctance was because nobody wanted to come out and say stop watering your grass this summer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Water district General Manager Zach Renstrom said he appreciates Conserve Southwest officials\u2019 concerns, but he and others insist speed needs to take a back seat to getting a plan approved that all the cities and the public will support. He noted the district is not mandated to have a water shortage plan, but is trying to be proactive in creating what would be the first such plan in Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it is something so new,\u201d Renstrom added, \u201cwe want to make sure we get consensus from all parties. That takes time and effort. I agree it would be nice if it were already done, but I also think the importance of the document and making sure it is done right requires us to take time to work with each city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balking at restrictions<\/p>\n
The latest draft of the plan contains several stages that require cities to cut water use by increasing percentages and imposing ever more severe restrictions the bleaker the water outlook becomes. <\/p>\n
But officials with some member cities<\/a> are balking at the plan\u2019s one-size-fits-all restrictions and are pitching the notion that individual cities, not the district, need to decide how best to achieve the reductions. Goodfellow and Conserve Southwest President Edward Andrechak are fine with either model, but argue that the district\u2019s lack of haste is responsible for considerable water waste. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we had an approved plan, we would already be in stage two, which would require a 20% reduction\u201d in water use, Andrechak said. \u201cBut nothing has kicked in because we are still waiting for a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Exacerbating concerns is that southwest Utah has weathered one of the area\u2019s worst water years. With three weeks to go in the water year, all of Washington County is stuck in severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>. <\/p>\n Little margin for error<\/p>\n If the district delays implementing a plan to cut back on water use, Conserve Southwest officials question whether the district will have enough water on tap if Washington County has another bad water year.<\/p>\n Water conservation is one of the two main drivers of the 20-year plan the district unveiled in 2023 to secure another 47,000 acre-feet of water by 2042 to keep pace with the St. George area\u2019s rapid growth. The other is investing more than $1 billion to construct more water reuse system.<\/p>\n Especially concerning for Goodfellow and Andrechak is that most of that reuse infrastructure won\u2019t be in place until 2030, leaving the county vulnerable if the demand for water outstrips the supply in the coming years.<\/p>\n Without that infrastructure, they argue, conservation is more critical than ever, especially in reducing the water used for outdoor irrigation. Goodfellow said half of the district\u2019s supply goes for outdoor irrigation, and 75% of that total is used to water grass. And despite the dry year, Goodfellow noted that water usage this year is higher than last year.<\/p>\n Conserve Southwest officials want the district to implement more aggressive messaging to motivate residents to use less water, rip out their lawns and replace them with artificial grass or xeriscaping.<\/p>\n \u201cReduced watering of grass lawns will have the biggest and quickest effect on lowering usage,\u201d Goodfellow said. <\/p>\n They also want the district to up the ante for excess water use. If cities fail to save enough or exceed budgeted amounts in whatever plan is approved, they want the district to impose painful financial penalties that incentivize cities to avoid a recurrence.<\/p>\n Currently, the district levies a $10 surcharge<\/a> for every 1,000 gallons of water new homes use in excess of 8,000 gallons during the winter, 15,000 gallons during fall and spring and 20,000 gallons during the summer.<\/p>\n District officials say they and Conserve Southwest are on the same page on most issues, but differ on the timing for producing a water shortage plan. They note water levels in Sand Hollow and Quail Creek reservoirs are at 73% and 60% of capacity, respectively, much higher than their models predicted. They also tout the district\u2019s Water Efficient Landscape Program<\/a>, which has resulted in Washington County cities replacing nearly three million square feet of grass <\/a>with water-efficient landscaping.<\/p>\n Doug Bennett, the district\u2019s conservation manager, estimates another 70 million square feet of grass could be removed. Nonetheless, he noted, the program has made tremendous strides since it was implemented nearly three years ago and will quicken the pace once more apartment and other multi-family complexes get into the grass-replacement game. <\/p>\n As for water use, district officials say it was up last spring due to an exceptionally dry winter but moderated substantially over the summer. Overall, they added, the per-capita water use has decreased by 11% since 2020.<\/p>\n Renstrom said officials from across the state are inquiring about the district\u2019s efforts to pass a water-shortage plan and are looking to follow suit. <\/p>\n \u201cWashington County is a leader in water issues compared to the rest of Utah,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I want to make sure whatever we put out there is a really good example for the rest of the state \u2014 and that takes some time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. George \u2022 Water managers in southern Utah\u2019s most populous county can ill afford to delay approval of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-141819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}