With respect to The Salt Lake Tribune article “Utah water conservation plan falls short, critics say,” I believe that the Utah Division of Water Resources has no interest in water conservation, but wants to be “seen” as conserving water.
What I mean by that is they make plenty of marketing/PR claims about their efforts, but when a well-documented article puts the division’s efforts into context, the truth about the dismal efforts comes to light.
Utah is home to the cheapest water prices in the West and some of the highest water usages per capita, and yet this myth is being pushed that “we are running out of water” by certain stakeholders in the community. Simple water conservation efforts can vastly change the calculus of the future of water resources in Utah if actual conservation practices are incentivized.
This lack of effort to conserve water is always too clear on my walk up to the University of Utah campus. When I have to jump over puddles and step over streams of water on the sidewalk in the middle of summer, this is a clear sign that things must change. We live in an arid environment and need conservation goals that acknowledge this.
Eric Amerling, Salt Lake City