Tribune editorial: Utah needs to use less water. So water needs to cost more.

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” — James 2:17

Once again, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is asking us to pray for rain. Not just pray, as he requested in 2021, but fast as well.

It is pretty dry out there.

Some 80% of the state is officially suffering through “moderate to severe drought.” That’s hard on lawns, parks, golf courses, agriculture, animals and people. It also multiplies the already significant danger of wildfires, which threaten lives and property.

What is troublesome about our governor’s latest call for us to entreat the Almighty to ease our climatological woes, beyond the questionable promotion of religion by a civic official, is the concern that Cox is giving up on anything human agency can do to face the problem. That he’s suggesting that if it doesn’t rain, it will be our fault, because we didn’t pray hard enough, or to the right god.

Oh, Cox is mentioning the usual stuff. Conserve. Don’t water the lawn so much. Fix those leaky faucets.

“Small actions, taken together, can make a big difference for our state,” Cox tells us.

Ummm. Nope.

The fact is that, in Utah, domestic water use is a sliver of the amounts of H2O that get consumed hereabouts.

We could let every lawn turn brown, every golf course and park dry to a crisp, drink imported beer instead of water and wash our clothes in turpentine and we would have only a tiny impact on our water situation.

We’d still be looking at shortages for domestic and agricultural uses. We’d still be watching the skies for toxic dust storms rising from the desiccated bed of the Great Salt Lake.

As outlined in a 2023 study by Utah State University’s Center for Growth and Opportunity, only about 10% of the water used in Utah goes through municipal water systems. Agriculture, by contrast, drinks up some 75% of our water usage.

Wise use of water by everyone is a good idea, even if it only promotes awareness and demonstrates solidarity with our neighbors, both urban and rural. We can do without laws or homeowner association rules that demand green lawns, do more xeriscaping of public spaces, adopt modern technological solutions for vastly more efficient irrigation everywhere.

But the real change that has to happen around here is to stop pretending we don’t live in a desert — by some measures the second driest state in the nation. We must address the massively subsidized cost of water for agriculture, much of which isn’t to put food on Utahns’ tables. And we must address the imbalance of 0.5% of Utah GDP generated by agriculture consuming three-quarters of our water.

We know how important water is. That should be reflected in what it costs.

Instead of letting so much of it flow free to holders of decades-old water rights, or subsidizing water systems through the use of property taxes rather than per-gallon fees, Utah should charge people to use this precious and limited resource.

Instead of intricate and difficult-to-enforce limits and rules, we should develop actual water markets to encourage the ingenuity of farmers and other land managers to get by with less water.

If that means fewer acres of alfalfa planted, less lush gardens and dryer golf courses, then that’s what it means. If it means taxpayers buying out old water rights attached to rural acreages, even at a high cost, that’s what we must do.

If it means getting serious about a real deal to use less water from the diminishing Colorado River, instead of just trying to selfishly grab for our share of nothing, that’s the path we must take.

Prayer? Well, if it makes anyone feel better. If it raises awareness.

But do not forget a sentiment that has been attributed to both St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Augustine:

“Pray as though everything depended on God; act as though everything depended on you.”

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.