— Promoting reasonable conservation measures through public education, incentives, and technology. Among other things, we should eliminate disincentives to water conservation, enforce the Utah Water Conservation Plan Act, encourage water providers to operate their systems in a more integrated way, develop increased capacity to reuse wastewater, encourage development and use of new technologies, and upgrade infrastructure to reduce water loss from leaks.

D. Protect Utah's Water through Smart, Efficient Development. Even with aggressive conservation, rapid population growth will require us to develop new water supplies. In addition, we must take the steps necessary to protect Utah's allocation of water from the Colorado River. To achieve these goals, we must:

— Take action to secure rights of way and funding for proposed projects to develop water from the Colorado River and the Bear River and ensure that those projects minimize cost and environmental damage. Among these projects are the final pieces of the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project that will bring water from the Colorado River drainage to the Wasatch Front; a proposed pipeline to deliver water from Lake Powell to St. George and, possibly, Cedar City; a pipeline from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir; and a reservoir and pipeline to store and deliver water from the Bear River.

— Pursue "smart" water development methods that are less costly and damaging to the environment, such as increasing capacity in existing reservoirs, off-stream development, and aquifer storage and recovery.

— Until our Colorado River supplies are fully developed, explore opportunities to lease temporarily Utah's unused water to other states, but only on the condition that it can be done without jeopardizing Utah's allocation.

— Resolve Native American water rights claims by negotiating agreements that provide for the legitimate needs and interests of Native Americans and meet the other demands of our growing state.

E. Develop and Implement a More Comprehensive State Drought Response Plan. I will work with water providers and water users to prepare a comprehensive plan outlining specific steps that can be taken to mitigate the impacts of drought. In addition, I will propose consideration of a voluntary water bank and promote voluntary, basin-specific drought-response strategies.

F. Provide State Assistance to Local Water Suppliers. State government must coordinate closely with local entities such as local governments, public utilities, water conservancy districts, improvement districts, and others; understand their operations and challenges; and provide them with necessary technical and financial support to achieve statewide water management goals.

G. Assure High-Quality Water. To protect the quality of our water resources, I propose to: