Who’s Using Most of Utah’s Water?
– By Howard Sierer –
If you learned that one Utah industry produced less than 1% of our state’s gross product, employed a little over 2% of our workforce, yet used 82% of our water, would that seem like a reasonable allocation of our limited water resources?
Utah’s agriculture industry is the elephant in the water use room.
Utah along with most of the country’s southwest has been experiencing a megadrought for over 20 years. That’s put the kibosh on the Lake Powell pipeline with the 2021 Colorado River flow only 29% of average.
Yet Utah is the fastest growing state in the union on a percentage basis. The demand for new housing and the water to supply them is putting an unprecedented strain on residential and business water availability.
Gene Shawcroft, chairman of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, says, “Our water supply isn’t going to grow at the same rate that our population is going to grow. The only way we can continue to grow is if we use less.”
The “we” in Shawcroft’s statement needs to start with agriculture. Residential customers use just 10% and commercial customers use only 8% of available supply.
In an interview with KSL, Professor Daniel McCool of the University of Utah says saving “just 10% of [agriculture’s water use] would solve a lot of our problems. Agriculture has so much water — and farmers get it so cheaply — that there’s no incentive to conserve. We do not have a water crisis; we have a water management crisis.”
Illustrating McCool’s point, the Huntsville Irrigation Company replaced its open irrigation ditches with piping several years ago, eliminating the 58% of irrigation water that was being lost to ground seepage and evaporation. It wouldn’t take very many similar projects to get McCool’s 10% savings and increase the amount available for residential and commercial users dramatically.
McCool also argues that water-rich farmers often grow the wrong crops. He says most of Utah’s water is used to grow alfalfa hay — which consumes relatively high amounts of water — and much of that hay is sold to China to feed dairy cows. McCool says that “farmers are using thousands of dollars of water to grow hundreds of dollars of hay,” and in the process are exporting Utah’s water to China with a relatively low financial return.
So, why shouldn’t cities just work out deals with farmers? McCool notes that permanent farm-to-city transfers are relatively rare due to 19th century laws protecting water rights and because many farming communities are so protective of their agricultural traditions. He says water would be worth a lot more to Utah farmers if there was a free and open market where those with excess water could sell it to thirsty cities and towns.
McCool explains that traditional Western “use it or lose it” water laws discourage conservation. “The water that’s saved as a result of their increased efficiency, they lose their title to it. So, we punish them for being efficient. That’s the way the law is right now.”
Despite Utah’s disproportionate agricultural water use, the rest of us should expect to do our part in water conservation, even if it’s only a small contribution to the larger problem.
Addressing the state’s water crisis, Gov. Spencer Cox said, “We have to recognize the value of water. If we can implement something more expensive today that allows us to continue to grow and develop, I would say that’s a wise investment. So, we need to consider those.”
Our state legislature has taken concrete steps in that direction. It approved $250 million toward secondary water metering, funding dozens of projects that will add 114,000 meters. The project is estimated to save 65,000 acre-feet annually since metered secondary water uses 20% to 30% less water.
The legislature appropriated funding to remove decorative turf, an offer being implemented through our local Washington County Water Conservancy District. It also created a water trust to send water to places like the Great Salt Lake by temporarily removing the “use or lose it” mentality in Utah water rights so that water can flow into the lake.
As with too many public policy problems – even when they have obvious solutions – government doesn’t act until a large segment of the public is impacted and ready for a change. Revising our water rights laws, providing public funding for efficient irrigation practices and applying steeply increasing rates for high-volume residential water users will do far more good than xeriscaping our yards.
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The agenda of the globalist left is to ration and control our energy, food and transportation.
Nice article, Howard. We need to figure out how to deal with the massive amount of water that is used for agriculture without doing harm to farmers but helping our growing urban areas. If food was being grown instead of mostly hay and alfalfa, that amount of water would be much easier to justify. I’ve posted it on my Southern Utah Issues FB page for others outside the SU Independent group to read and learn: https://www.facebook.com/SouthernUtahIssuesbyRutherford
Lisa, thanks for your nice words. As the Huntsville irrigation example shows, many of our farmers know they have excess water and would be willing to sell it if our “use it or lose it” water laws didn’t effectively prevent it. Fixing the water laws and then giving farmers the option to get a return on what they know they are wasting now is doable but will take some political capital to bring to pass.
A very insightful article. I wish our leaders would stop spending my money by punishing my water use for my yard, (as noted in the article residential use is minimal) ,when farmers are blatantly abusing water because they can. The laws need to change now.
Im a farmer. We use the water to grow feed for people. There could be an argument that all lawn wattering is a blantent waste.
Excellent summary of Great Salt Lake issue with defensible facts from credible sources. Professor Daniel McCool of the University of Utah accurately provides meaningful corrective actions that will require significant water resource management changes. Current demand-based planning and development without radical water usage change trades short term gains for a costly future for Utah residents especially in Kane County.
Farmers are in a much different situation than lawn waterers because they own shares of water which are very costly. Mine are $10,000 for each share. Don’t cuss the farmers with your mouth full.
In my opinion, a very uninformed article. First of all Huntsville is one of the last communities to put in that type of a system. Most have had one for years. 2nd, as was mentioned, farmers own the water right, they developed it, paid for the infrastructure and maintain it. And finally, I’m sorry but you might be able to live on a golf course but you can’t live off of one. Farmers are growing YOUR food. And are constantly looking for ways to conserve and improve their practices.