Conservation saves water and money

Earlier this week, the Deseret Morning News reported on the hopeful snowpack situation around the state. Although it is still early in the critical period for our snowpack, the news is welcome after six years of drought. But we need to be thoughtful in our response to this good news.

A good water year would not solve Utah's water issues. Instead, a good water year would give us a little breathing room and the time to do right by our rivers and our pocketbooks.

A slackening in the drought would allow us to think before rushing to commit hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to ill-conceived dams and diversions on the Bear River. A window of wet weather would give us time to expand our investment in water conservation.

At the individual level, we can think of a good water year as a chance to redouble our water conservation efforts, not a reason to slip back into old, wasteful habits.

Why conserve even in a good water year? The reasons are numerous. First, even if this turns out to be a great water year, we have a long road back to normal after six years of drought. Dry soils need to be saturated, rivers need to recover and reservoirs need to fill.

Secondly, conserving water protects your pocketbook. By saving water at home, you reduce your monthly water bill. On a larger scale, water conservation can help defer or totally avoid expensive new dams and diversions. For example, Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District estimates the average cost of water saved through its water conservation programs is $50 per acre-foot.

In contrast, the district estimates that their primary proposed water development projects would cost $500 per acre-foot or more. If the district reaches its conservation goal of a 25 percent reduction in water use by 2025, the net present value of the savings realized through deferral of water development projects is nearly $60 million.

Lastly, we all live in a semiarid state. The facts are simple. On average, Utah receives 13 inches of rain a year, and the population along the Wasatch Front is booming. Yet Utah has the dubious distinction of having the second-highest per person water use in the nation. In urban and suburban settings, nearly 70 percent of that water is used to water lawns and nearly 50 percent of that water is used to overwater lawns.

Even in the depths of winter, you can conserve water. Now is the time to repair leaking plumbing fixtures. Leaky sinks and toilets can waste 50 gallons of water a day — those slow drips can add up to more than 18,000 gallons a year.