There is a lot of bad news about water. We will talk about the bad news and steps we are about to take to deal with it at the Mayor’s first Ivins “Talkabout” on Wednesday, February 22nd at 7pm at Rocky Vista University. This Talkabout is devoted to just one topic: Water.
We see enough bad news about water almost daily. And we’ll get more of that at the Talkabout. Plus, I will post more information about our water situation next week once I collect January water data and have another meeting with the Washington County Water Conservancy District. Spoiler alert: It won’t be good news.
So, let’s take a moment to look at something positive. We don’t have “real time” data on water use, but Chuck Gillette, our Public works Director, gave me monthly data through December 31st.
Per capita water consumption in Ivins has fallen from almost 300 gallons per person a day in 2000 to just over 180 gallons a day last year. Per capita use has fallen partly because of conservation efforts by the city and residents and partly because of technology – the increasing use of water-efficient fixtures, toilets, recirculating pumps and more.
Even though per capita consumption is lower, Ivins consumes more water now than it did ten or twenty years ago. On average, the city used 39,000,000 gallons a month in the 12 months ending December 2005. That has increased to just under 60,000,000 gallons in the past 12 months. That’s a 50% increase in the amount of water we’ve consumed. But in that same period our population doubled.
The last chart shows we use a lot more water in the summer. That’s logical. That’s when grass, pools, and water features use the most water. Our water conservation ordinance, passed last June, regulates these and other water uses for new construction. We should start seeing benefits from that this year. In addition, we will update the city’s Water Conservation Plan this year. It was last done in 2018 and most of the goals we set have been met or exceeded.
So now is the time for all of us in southwest Utah to take bolder action on conservation. And it’s time to finally decide what we are going to do with wastewater and do it.
