facebook-pixel

Letter: Utah will be a modern-day Dust Bowl if we don’t stop growing

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Construction at the former Granite Furniture in Sugar House continues at a quick pace as the new Sugarmont Apartments takes shape on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. New Census data show that Salt Lake City has surpassed 200,000 residents and again is the state's fastest-growing city by numbers. It added 5,891 residents between July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017.

Headlines call our attention to the record-breaking drought that is threatening our agricultural economy this year in Utah.

The conditions in Utah are similar to the conditions preceding the devastating U.S. Dust Bowl of 1938. I doubt most people in the state even bothered to read the articles describing the seriousness of the situation or are contemplating, in any manner, to consider measures to prepare for or try to mitigate the seemingly obvious outcome.

In the same newspapers, we hear of new construction projects to accommodate Utah’s spiraling population and business growth. For a community formed on the site of a previous desert, we are just asking for trouble.

I hope someone in state government is intelligent enough to realize there needs to be a moratorium on growth.

Let’s not be so short-sighted that we can’t see the problems ahead and prevent even more serious problems.

Darlene Bennett, Salt Lake City