Salt Lake Tribune - Utah:North Salt Lake water supply can't keep up with growth

We all now realize that for a city with no secondary water, the costs of flouridation can be excessive. I did not know that the east benches have more porous soil, and therefore, require more water to have the same effect as those watering elsewhere. Eaglewood Golfcourse, on the east end of NSL, is leeching a great deal of water from our reserves.

Salt Lake Tribune - Utah:North Salt Lake water supply can't keep up with growth

NSL Cities Water Conservation Plan

How is North Salt Lake City planning on handling the problem of water conservation, and the added cost of flouridation? Especially, since they are considering the development of more Parks? One quote from their plan interested me greatly. (Hat tip to Steve Rawlings for pointing this issue out to me.)

"Maximizing the amount of secondary water used for outdoor water use within the City has multiple benefits. These benefits include smaller increases in required volumes of culinary water in future years and reduced cost in developing new culinary sources.

In order to maximize the use of secondary water, there are several steps that should be completed:

• Require all new developments to include secondary water where available.

• Enforce watering restrictions during the hottest part of the day by issuing tickets with fines that increase if the offense is repeated.
• Provide educational materials that discuss how to determine the amount of water necessary for a healthy lawn.
• Determine the amount of water necessary for healthy landscaping at City Parks and the golf course. It is typical for such locations to be overwatered by anywhere from 25% to 50%. Correcting any overwatering done by the City will reduce the demand on the irrigation system and reduce waste.

Conclusion: Secondary water saves an enormous amount of culinary water from being used in outdoor watering. This resource needs to be maximized by being made available to as much of the City as possible, and by using this resource in a manner that is educated and non-wasteful."

Meeting with Steve Rawlings

I met with Steve Rawlings this morning, and it was a pleasant experience. I learned some things that I will summarize below.

• The State of Utah is paying, roughly, half of what it should to Davis County for housing the 100-150 Prison inmates at Davis County Jail. They've committed to pay 75% of the total cost.
  
• The County plans on using many of the Jail inmates to landscape the new Jail extension to save money.
• Davis County pays about $10,000 a year into Cable 17.
• Davis Counties population will be at 500,000 in about 30 years (not 5).
• Those parts of the County that only have culinary water are paying extra, thanks to the added cost of flouride. (North Salt Lake has especially high cost in taxes because the Golf Course is watered in this fashion) North Salt Lake residents pay an extra $40 average, whereas other areas with secondary water can pay as low as $1 extra.
  

Water Resources

Charley Foster, at The State of the Beehive, linked to Davis County Watch, so I took a second look at his profile and was pleased to find this blog to which he is a contributer. It makes economic, not just environmental, sense for Utahn's to conserve water.

Water Resources (Water policy, law, science, engineering, use,...)

The Hidden Costs of Subsidies

IN OUR VIEW Drop the water subsidies :: The Daily Herald, Provo Utah: "Water is vital to Utah. If it weren't for water, and the discipline to
use it wisely, Utah's pioneers would never have been able to survive in
the Great Basin."

This is the kind of thinking that Davis County needs to adopt as well. This would be a great issue to raise with the County Commissioners at the Townhall meeting on May 18th. When you go, be sure to hold Dannie McConkie's feet to the fire. He sits on both the Utah Water Users Association, and the Weber Basin Water Quality Management Council.

I found this article originally referenced on The State of the Beehive, and I would recommend it.