This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over."
— Mark Twain
Not a lot of whiskey on Utah's Capitol Hill. But a lot of fighting over water, how to get it, how to pay for it and whose business it all is.
The good news is that a bill that would require cities to encourage more conservation of the precious fluid appears to be flowing through the Legislature with some ease.
The Senate has already passed Senate Bill 28, which would require municipal utility departments and others that sell water to homes and businesses to set up pricing structures that charge more for each unit of water as an individual customer's consumption goes up.
The legislation, which now goes to the House, was offered by Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City. He rightly wants those utilities that don't already use such conservation pricing to put it in place so that every customer in the state will get the pricing signals necessary to encourage the careful use of water.
That may be hard on some farmers and other big users of water. But in a very dry state, where getting water from here to there is difficult and expensive, it is the best way to make all consumers think twice before turning on the tap.
The not-so-good news is that lawmakers are also contemplating a raid on the state highway fund, a diversion of $10 million a year, to build up a slush fund for future, not-yet named, water projects.
But nobody doubts that the likely beneficiary of that cash would be some horribly expensive boondoggles, such as the proposed $1 billion pipeline to move water from Lake Powell to St. George.
The highway fund itself is already pilfering money from the state's education budget, due to previous and unwise legislation that earmarks pre-determined portions of sales tax revenues toward highways. Instead of just robbing Peter to pay Paul, this added diversion of funds would be robbing Paul to pay Powell.
Meanwhile, other legislative committees are threatening to throw up unnecessary hurdles to water quality matters. A Senate committee has unanimously approved SB110, bill that would allow those who discharge wastewater into the environment to go scientist shopping whenever they might want to overturn permit requirements imposed by state environmental officials. It's a bill that would favor polluters over everyone else and is a bad idea.
Also a bad idea is HCR1, a resolution approved by the House that objects to federal efforts to protect water quality in the state. Sponsor Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, argues that the state is going just fine with its water quality efforts and doesn't need any help from big brother.
Which is ironic, as other lawmakers are chaffing at efforts by the state to keep a proper eye on local water districts. And is doubly ironic as it is the same legislator — Sen. Scott Jenkins, who has moved to impose the conservation pricing model on all water utilities — who was heard to object to efforts by the Utah Division of Drinking Water to monitor the amounts of water used by local districts.
Division officials argue, correctly, that not only is the data necessary to evaluate water programs and projects around the state, but also that the capturing of that information was urged upon them by a legislative audit. Jenkins' belly-aching — "I feel like telling the state to mind its own business" — ignores the fact that water usage all over Utah is very much the state's business.