Molly Waters, conservation director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, said Tuesday that eight cities and private companies have never submitted a conservation plan to the state; another 15 failed to update their original five-year blueprints that were due by Dec. 31.
"Everybody has their own reasons, but it can't be because putting these plans together is complicated. It's super easy to do," Waters said.
The good news: Out of the 151 water agencies required to submit conservation plans - cities and companies with more than 500 hookups - about 85 percent have complied, including virtually all of the state's largest municipal water providers. That's easily the highest compliance rate since the law was passed in 1998, and for that Waters credits a 2003 revision to the law that allows the state to publish the names of recalcitrant agencies.
"It had a huge effect," she said. "That little provision spurred 10 to 15 cities that had never complied before to get their plans in. The quality of the plans has also improved."
Yet, the eight primary offenders - including Layton, Woods Cross and Grantsville - have somehow failed to get the word. Or gotten the word and procrastinated. Or ignored it altogether.
"Yeah, we've been delinquent," Grantsville Mayor Byron Anderson acknowledged.
Grantsville's biggest problem, Anderson says, is a city ordinance that actually encourages excess residential water use by requiring developers bring water with them or pay an impact fee. That, and an overall lack of urgency - "We're not in bad shape, water-wise," the mayor said - has combined to put the city at odds with the state.
"We're going to redo the ordinance, then have the system re-engineered," Anderson promised.
Woods Cross Public Works director Scott Anderson, meanwhile, says his city must resolve water issues between residential and commercial users, who make up 40 percent of the city's water customers.
"We have a plan that was submitted to the state as part of a loan application, but we never followed it through with Water Resources," he said. "Our intent is to redevelop that plan."
Grantsville mayor Anderson, for instance, estimates it will cost his city $10,000 to hire a consultant that can develop a conservation plan.
But some cities, water districts and water companies simply resent a law being imposed on them with no accompanying funding. And there are no penalties that compel them to comply.
Whatever the reason, Water Resources director Larry Anderson says it is vital for the state's water providers to get with the program. Utah remains the second-highest per capita water user in the nation, just behind Nevada, at 280 gallons per day. That is a significant reduction from the 320 daily gallons Utahns consumed in 1995, but Anderson says the state needs to get down to 250 - and needs the help of the water agencies to do it.
"It's really important to encourage communities to adopt a water conservation ethic, to get out in front of the public and set an example," he said.
jbaird@sltrib.com
