I have the same reaction to something state water officials are up to these days. They aren't telemarketing, but they have hired Vanguard Media Group to sell us something we don't really need - a pipeline that would transport water from Lake Powell to Washington County.

If you think about it, just the fact that state officials have determined that an expensive spin campaign is necessary speaks volumes about how unnecessary the Lake Powell pipeline must be. A little math is even more convincing.

State planners calculate that Washington County will need the pipeline around 2023 when the county reaches a projected population of 270,000 - more than double the current population of 130,000.

But the state's pro-pipeline projections are based on 2005 per-capita water use and therefore should be seriously questioned. Consumption rates are already trending down and will be significantly reduced by new technologies and rate incentives in coming years.

If you think I'm overly optimistic, consider the fact that current per-capita consumption rates in most communities in the Southwest are significantly lower than Washington County's. Several communities - Albuquerque and Tucson for example - have per-capita use rates half Washington County's, serving the same number of people using half the water.

If already proven levels of efficiency are achieved, Washington County can support 500,000 residents without the pipeline - a population that won't be reached until around 2040.

I don't point this out to disparage anyone. State water officials have done well in providing Washington County with a surplus of water and therefore efficiency hasn't been a high priority. But if 30 years roll by and they haven't figured out how to apply tomorrow's technologies to match what other comparable communities are already doing with today's technologies, somebody's going to have some real explaining to do.

And I don't think it will be very satisfying to hear that it was a lot more fun building billion-dollar engineering monuments in the desert than applying relatively cheap and unglamorous technologies to make our water system at least as efficient as what others achieved 30 years previously.

If you've already heard the marketing spin that the pipeline would "only" cost around $500 million, you might think I'm exaggerating to describe it as a billion-dollar project. I'm not. Pipeline proponents conveniently neglect to disclose that cash required for construction would be raised through interest-bearing state bonds. More than $500 million in interest would be paid out, pushing the real cost past the $1 billion threshold.

To repay this loan from the state, everyone in Washington County would pay more for water. And new home prices would soar ever higher as water hook-up fees - the primary source of repayment - are significantly increased over time. The resulting increase in new home prices would be a double whammy - many would not be able to afford homes and property taxes for everyone would be lifted up by inflated property values.

And not only would the pipeline deliver a more expensive future to Washington County, it would also deliver congestion and sprawl almost beyond comprehension.

To help you visualize it, the current population of Utah County is less than 500,000. Imagine Washington County with more congestion and sprawl than exists today in the Draper-Orem-Provo-Springville-Spanish Fork corridor. That's without the pipeline.

We're told the pipeline would allow another 285,000 residents. That total population of 785,000 would put Washington County at about 80 percent of the congestion, sprawl and smog that exists today in Salt Lake County.

That's a future that's both unnecessary and undesirable. It's bad enough there's already enough water available to transform Washington County into Utah County. Let's not spend a billion dollars to build a pipeline that transforms Washington County into Salt Lake County and in the process destroys everything we love about southern Utah.

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* BRUCE WILSON retired as the CIO of Universal Studios and now lives in Washington, Utah. He is the author of Disarming the Culture War: How the Silent Majority Can Break the Stalemate. His email address is bnwilso@charter.net.