OCR Text |
Show 35 sion, trucking feed for cattle, and opening up the CRP lands for grazing. Action being taken by state agencies including the Division of Wildlife is expediting well permitting processes and allowing temporary water rights for drought related mitigation, the Board of Water Resources, the State Community Impact Board have low and no interest loans with priorities given to projects that address drought related water problems. Dissemination of information regarding the drought situation and raising public awareness about the critical nature of Utah's water supply levels has been very effective. We appreciate the State Water Agencies working with local media to keep the general public aware of the drought situation. Even in normal years, Utah has a limited water supply. The second driest state in the Nation- and we must become more efficient in the use of our existing water supplies. Governor Leavitt has initiated a statewide water conservation initiative, not only is this initiative a response to the current drought, but it will provide a legacy of intelligent water use for future generations. Water conservation will play a significant role in meeting the water needs of future generations. Utah has set a goal of reducing per capita water usage by 25 percent over the next 50 years. Governor Leavitt appointed the Governor's Water Conservation Team comprised of representatives of major water districts, state agencies, municipal water users, Envision Utah, and the green industry, and gave them the challenges of developing and coordinating statewide programs that would encourage water conservation. Communities have been asked to pass a time- of- day water ordinance of no watering lawns from 10 AM to 6 PM each day, and to develop a water conservation pricing schedule. In addition, a new State water conservation web page has been developed with helpful water conservation information. Water conservation efforts have been most effective when incentives are in place to motivate the public to use the water more efficiently. The governor has directed the state water resource agencies to encourage incentive pricing to water users. The Division of Water Resources is providing technical information and help for water retailers to develop incentive pricing rate structures and has made this a requirement for receiving aid for water resource projects. New landscape irrigation controls that apply only the necessary amount of water for landscape are greatly effective. It is predicted that these types of landscape irrigations can reduce the water use by 40 percent, if used correctly. In Utah, our major water supply comes from melting snow. An accurate assessment of snowpack and other hydroclimatic variables is necessary to accurately predict water availability several months in advance. I would encourage this committee to look very seriously at those agencies that provide water information, particularly the USGS and stream gauging programs and the NRCS and their snow monitoring programs to see that this data is compiled. In previous years, the funding for these agencies has been, shall we say, stressful and we would encourage you to look at fully funding these agencies. Thank you. |