Mayor Joette Langianese did not water down her words when she suggested city residents should “start changing your habits now” at the Tuesday, June 23 Moab City Council discussion on the city’s under-development water conservation plan.

The mayor’s warning came near the end of a workshop led by Strategic Initiatives and Sustainability Director Alexi Lamm and Val Veilleux, the city’s Grants and Sustainability coordinator. The workshop focused on what has been done to conserve water the last five years and what is planned for the next five.

Every five years the City of Moab is required to provide a water conservation plan to the state in order to qualify for water development funding. The city last submitted such a plan in 2021 and a draft for the next one is due July 15 with the final copy due by mid-December, according to city documents.

The workshop included information on what is required in the plan, the city’s progress on water conservation goals, a timeline for completion of public outreach, options for future water conservation and actions the city can take now to address the persistent megadrought the Colorado Plateau has been in since about 2000. Moab is situated in the heart of the plateau.

Lamm and Veilleux also provided possible water conservation measures the city council will consider including in the plan as it is developed. The one element that goes beyond pure conservation could be implemented in the event of a water shortage. That’s when the city’s water saving guidelines would go from voluntary to mandatory and violators would be subject to fines.

There are five suggested levels, depending on water conditions. They are Normal, Advisory, Warning, Critical, and Emergency. Moab is currently in the Advisory category, which doesn’t have any restrictions, but could move up to Warning, something that Langianese said could occur before the end of summer.

If that does indeed occur, restrictions could include things like limits on washing vehicles at home, spraying off pavement, washing vehicles or spraying off pavement at home would be against the rules, private lawn watering, common area lawn watering, lodging laundry, and the use of misters, toys and sprinklers. would all have mandatory restrictions.

Lawn watering would have to be cut back 15%, as would the use of misters and sprinklers. Vehicles would have to be washed at a car wash; those in the overnight lodging business would not change bedding or towels for multiday guests — unless the guest specifically requests the service. The initial draft suggested washing vehicles only at car washes thate use recycled water, but there are none in Moab so that language would likely be stricken, said Lamm, but people would still have to go to a car wash to clean their cars and use a broom or blower on pavement.

Here’s a closer look at what would happen if the city moves into the Warning category.

– Private lawn watering could only occur between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. to minimize evaporation. Watering is limited to three days per week on a designated schedule.

– The same rule applies to common area watering.

– Misters, toys and sprinklers must reduce frequency or duration of use by 15%.

– More restrictions would be put in place if the city moved to the Critical or Emergency categories should the council ultimately accept the recommendations. Suggested fines begin at $250 and would increase for subsequent violations.

“We’ll probably get to this stage this summer,” said Langianese. “You better start changing your habits now.”

Members of the council expressed a desire to “not get punitive” too soon and instead focus on education to help people change their water use habits. Councilor Miles Loftin said it was important that the city follows any rules it ultimately imposes on city water customers.

Councilor Justin Taylor asked Lamm and Veilleux what would trigger the city to go to the Warning category. In a nutshell, the answer is supply and demand. When demand exceeds supply, the city could act. How that determination is made is not clear. City Public Utilities Director Obe Tejada is the person who monitors the city’s water availability. How he does that is not plainly understood and he was unable to attend the June 23 meeting to explain his methodology.

Conservation efforts since 2021

The Water Conservation Plan comes with a goal of reducing usage by 20% between 2015, when the plans were mandated by the state, and 2030. According to Veilleux, Moab is nearly there.

The average Gallons Per Capita Per Day — the amount of water each customer uses each day — is 269 gallons. Some users use more, some less, but the average is 269. Veilleux said a drop to 267 gallons per day would put Moab at the 20% reduction in use goal.

In 2025, residential customers used 55% of city water. There are 1,754 connections that consumed nearly 859 acre feet of water, or nearly 151 gallons per capita daily, said Veilleux.

There are 449 commercial connections that used roughly 571 acre feet of water, or 100.26 gallons per capita daily.

There are 67 Institutional connections; city buildings and parks, for example, that used nearly 129 acre feet of water, or 22.6 gallons per capital daily.

When looking at the data on a usage by connection, residential and commercial held steady over the past five years while institutional use has gone slightly up and down over the same time period.

The city began its Water Utility Resource Management planning in 2022. That same year the city began planning a landscape ordinance that passed in 2023. That same year the city passed an indoor water conservation ordinance. In 2024, outreach on landscape water conservation picked up with an irrigation workshop with Utah State University Extension.

Perhaps the most conservative achievement was that a smart watering system was installed at city parks. The city in 2025 and thus far in 2026 have held a “Localscapes” workshop, adopted its Water Shortage Response Plan and increased its social media outreach. In person conversations were held with local businesses and postcards with helpful water conservation tips were sent to businesses.

Residential water use is up in 2026

Residential water use increased by several thousand gallons this past April and May over 2025. Veilleux noted it has been drier this year. However, commercial users used several thousand fewer gallons this past May compared to May 2025.

City park water use was higher in February and March 2026 compared to the previous year, but evened out in April and saw a decline year-over-year in May.

Looking ahead to the next five years

Four suggestions to conserve water ranging from inexpensive to prohibitively expensive were suggested. The first would be to alter the billing structure to incentivize lower usage. This would involve the creation of a tiered system based on higher rates for higher users, similar to what is in effect at the Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency.

There was also discussion on adding more information to water bill statements, particularly letting people know what a “unit” of water is so they can see how much water they use. Long answer short, one unit is 1,000 gallons of water in Moab.

Water reuse incentives that would encourage people to reuse gray water and nature-based solutions like rain gardens and other conservation measures are also under consideration.

In an effort to lead conservation efforts by example, a third potential project would be internal water audits so the city understands how efficient its water use is.

Finally, a wastewater plant retrofit, in which purified water would be recovered from the wastewater treatment facility for reuse. This would be an expensive undertaking.

The City Council could act on the proposed Water Conservation Plan in July.

This story was first published by The Times-Independent.