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ST. GEORGE — Imagine a future in Southern Utah where water is so scarce, officials have moved past rationing water for homeowners and farmers – and have begun ordering some residents to leave.
While a dystopian scenario where Washington County runs out of water may seem unlikely, it’s not an unimaginable one for Ron Thompson, general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
“We’re not in a position where we dare say ‘we’re not going to need more water’ as an answer,” Thompson said. “If we were, we’d have to decide who gets to stay here and who has to leave.”
The only conceivable and most cost-effective option to avoid something like a “last in, first out” policy is the Lake Powell Pipeline, Thompson said. The project, currently in its planning stages, would include nearly 140 miles of pipeline under the ground to deliver water from Lake Powell to Washington and Kane counties.
Critics say the $1.1 billion-$1.8 billion required to pay for the project is just an example of wasteful government spending and is not the best way to supply water to Southern Utah. Washington County already has enough water sources to last for years, said Zachary Frankel, executive director of Utah Rivers Council.
“This Chicken Little fear that we’re growing and running out of water is tired and untrue,” Frankel said.
Without the Lake Powell Pipeline, Frankel said Washington County will continue to boom with its existing water sources and expanding with smaller water projects.
St. George is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the nation, according to estimates in March from the U.S. Census Bureau. But while St. George has been growing, water usage in the county has decreased by over 1 billon gallons over five years, according to the most recent numbers from 2015.
That amounts to about 143 gallons of water used each day for every person in the county.
“If our water usage has declined like Washington County says it has, then great,” Frankel said. “Why are they not going back and amending their permit application for the Lake Powell Pipeline? It’s just a special interest game to convince Utahns to waste billions of dollars.”
While the water usage in the county has gone down, there is still a lot more that can be done for water conservation before something as large as a billion-dollar pipeline needs to be built. Keeping the water use at 143 gallons of water per person per day is still too large, Frankel said.
Utah’s neighbor to the south uses a lot less water per capita than Washington County. While Arizona has similar climate and water sources to Southern Utah, the water use is at about 100 gallons of water per person per day, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
To read the full story, visit St. George News.
