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Brittany Cruz
Jennifer Courtney
English - 2010
3 July 2014
Protect Our Recourses
For those of you who have forgot Utah is a dessert, here is your notice. Utah is the
second driest state in the country and our water recourses are dwindling before our eyes. For
some of us its hard to take under consideration our decreasing water supply when we are
admiring our snow capped mountains to the east and the glistening lakes to the west. Those same
snow capped mountains and lakes are supporting all 2.9 billion of us with our water supply.
As mentioned before, Utah is the second driest state in the country. Well, did you know
that Utah is also one of the fastest growing states in the country? Gaylen Webb, states in
TAPPING OUT, Our biggest challenge is keeping up with the population growth. The amount
of land is staying the same, population is growing, water and agriculture opportunities are
lessening. Water is one of the greater fundamentals of life and is critical to the human
development; it is used for our population, food supply, agriculture, recreation, and sustaining
the environment. Natures seasonal cycles are no longer something we can rely on for our
growth, due to the severe climate changes.
Predications for Utahs future forecast include higher temperatures, more-extreme
weather patterns, less snowpack and early snowpack run off (Wallace). These unpredictable
weather patterns result in unstable conditions for the people of the state. This is why attention
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(KUTV 2 July 2014)
from all residents of Utah needs to be directed to the development for Slow the Flow
campaign. Thus far, the campaign has reduced over watering by eighteen- percent.
Unfortunately, two-thirds of our water supply is going to landscaping every year. That is
especially disappointing, because of places in Utah such as the west which is already in their 11
th

year of draught (Wallace). Shocking facts such as the two above have citizens worried, due to the
familiarity with Utahs inconsistency of high water and lower water years.
State representatives and board members are pushing to prepare for a 5-6 year extended
drought. We are not in a crisis yet, but this is
why we must act fast to prevent our beautiful
once lushes land and home from being a dry
memory. The photograph in the left
demonstrates how Utah is affected by droughts
in other states. For example, the above picture
is of the California drought, because of their
reliance and consumption of the Colorado River we were left with little water for our supply.
Slow the Flow campaign is desperately reaching out to the public to help them and our
selves to conserve our water intake. States goal for 2050 is to have 60% of our water supply met
by our efforts of conservation. The reasoning for this is because by the year of 2050 our
population is estimated to reach 6 million people, which is over double the population today.
Water issues will become more prominent with the growing population. We will not be able to
meet water requirements for families only by conservation, additional efforts will include;
advanced technology for appliances in homes that will reduce water leaks and increase
efficiency. Researchers have come up with the idea of creating additional pipelines in lakes such
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as Lake Powell and reservoirs around Utah. Funds are estimated to cost 16 billion for
installation, replacement, repairs, treatment and delivery system. Today, 85 percent of our water
supply is from snow pack, because of this connection fees are going to double or possibly even
triple in price in the next 20 years. Where will all of this money come from? Tage, the federal
government has put us on notice that they have no intention of funding the rebuilding or
replacement of that infrastructure. Hence, such costs will largely fall into the laps of consumers
and taxpayers (Webb). If this is not a wake up call for Utahans to reserve our resources, than
maybe paying these funds will be.
We must unite as a community, society and as a state in order for us to introduce creative
ideas on preserving our water supply now, but more importantly in the future. As a public we are
capable of generating lasting change resulting in a satisfied population. Old habits simply will
not fix the issue; however, conservative and careful habits will. Follow Slow the Flow
campaign and be apart of the improvement this state needs.







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Works Cited
Landers, Jay Major Utah Groundwater Projects Features States Deepest Wells. Civil
Engineering (08857024) 84.3 (2014): 22-24. Business Source Premier. Web. 5 July 2014.
Webb, Gaylen. "Tapping Out." Utah Business 27.6 (2013): 52. Regional Business News. Web. 5
July 2014.
Wallace, Brice. "As Water Becomes More Expensive, So Will The Cost Of Development In
Utah." Enterprise/Salt Lake City 43.30 (2014): 4. Regional Business News. Web. 5 July
2014.

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