Water Users Workshop Provides Information and Opportunities
Several CSU members attended the 2019 Utah Water Users Workshop in mid-March. This is a yearly event and one which CSU attends regularly. It’s a great opportunity to learn what’s going in the world of water on at the national, state and county level.
As usual, programs covered a variety of topics. Given space limitations, only a few highlights will be described here.
A presentation on water-related federal legislation emphasized the importance of water and need for citizens to communicate with leaders regarding water issues. Of course, we would like to see that communication focus on conservation and better use of our existing supplies.
Brian McInerney with the National Weather Service gave a presentation on Utah’s water situation and what we have ahead. It’s been a great water year for Utah, and if the mountain snow doesn’t melt too quickly, we should be in very good shape. Most reservoirs will fill, but interestingly, he said that the Green River/Flaming Gorge area is the weakest this year – the area the state’s counting on for keeping Lake Powell levels up.
Phil Dean, Governor’s Office and Management and Budget, and Evan Curtis, chair and member of the Executive Water Finance Board, gave an update on the board’s progress during 2018. They emphasized the need to maximize and leverage existing resources first. Music to our ears! They posed the question “why put more money into new water if not using our water well?”
Dean and Curtis also addressed the challenges of financing large and small projects and emphasized the need for secondary water metering, saving water and more agricultural efficiencies including water banking. They discussed the importance of “local scapes” – landscaping that takes Utah’s unique climate in mind. The 2018 lessons learned: they need to learn more about institutional water use and capital for replacement planning and funding since water planners are behind and have not factored those cost in yet! In 2019 they will focus on major project funding, efficient use of water, while working with municipalities on land use and water, specifically institutional water use.
One particularly interesting session focused on water reuse. As water becomes scarcer, reuse will get more attention and become more necessary. Current barriers exist including water rights, cost, public perception, bureaucratic red tape, and perhaps most important, public perception.
One reassuring thing about the workshop is that many of the presentations focused on conservation, or at least mentioned the need for conservation. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing workshop attendees is being able to attend all the sessions of interest in a field of fifty-four sessions. When two or more are offered at the same time, it means something will be missed. Or well, maybe next year we will hit those!
Finally, a major benefit of attending the workshop and one which makes the cost of attending that much more justifiable is the opportunity to catch up with water leaders and have a brief chat about issues of concern. Conserve Southwest Utah’s board and key members are always working to learn more and establish a firm base of knowledge to help us make wise decisions regarding water in our county to help drive our decisions and actions and to bring the most current information to our supporters.
