So, the Utah Legislative Auditor General has concluded that, in a perfect world, there is a way to pay for the Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP). Albeit based on the willingness of Washington County citizenry to accept huge increases in impact fees, water rates and property taxes, while the rest of us pick up the tab for the remainder. All to provide for the 350,000 people they believe will be moving into their rapidly warming community.
Despite the audit’s predictable outcome, the absurdity of the LPP remains. Betting on the long-term viability of a 140-mile water pipeline, along with the health and future of 500,000 people who live in one of the nation’s driest regions on the most threatened river in the U.S. currently in the midst of dramatic global climate change borders on insanity. Not to mention that the Colorado River is already the primary water source for 40 million Lower Basin users downstream.
The glory days of unbridled growth in the desert Southwest are over. Now is the time — past time — to accurately define what’s truly sustainable in all of our plans for the future. Yet, despite it all, Utah “leadership” continues to foster fossil fuel development across the state that, ironically, acts to exacerbate the problem, desperate in their belief that it’s still 1960.
Statewide air quality, water, public lands and wildlife populations, the Great Salt Lake, the ski industry — we’re all threatened and need solutions based on science, not pipedreams. Conservation and sustainability are clearly what’s needed in St. George. Apparently, they have the resources to sustain what’s currently in place.
No one needs the LPP, but new leadership whose plans for the future aren’t based solely on population and profit would be welcomed.
Dan Mayhew, Salt Lake City
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