UTAH RIVERS COUNCIL

Utah is proposing some of the largest and most destructive water development projects in the nation and jeopardizing the existence of many species as well as the state’s $12 billion recreational economy. It is time for Utah to embrace real fiscal conservatism around water and stop wasting billions of dollars to destroy our rivers and the amazing fish and wildlife populations they support. Conservation is the heart of conservatism and yet conservative Utah is America’s most wasteful water user. Utah incentivizes people to waste water by collecting property taxes to lower the price of water below its cost of delivery. This is not conservative. This is why Utahns water streets, sidewalks and driveways and water while it’s raining. This regressive tax policy encourages government institutions to waste water, which is not conservative. Worse yet, this high water waste is the justification used by government water project salesmen to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on unnecessary water projects. These water project salesmen ignore inexpensive alternatives to their pet porkbarrel projects using fear and sowing ignorance about our water supply. They claim that only by indebting ourselves with billions in new spending can we ensure we have enough water for the future. This is not conservative. These water project salesmen ignore the huge amount of water that can be provided through water conservation, by converting surplus farm water into municipal water, by phasing out property tax subsidies for water and making all water users pay the full cost of their use in their bill. This is not conservative. These water project salesmen spend tax money on lobbyists who argue we must divert our last free-flowing rivers down sterile canals. What benefit is there to building water projects we don’t need? Is it simply to employ people for stimulus spending for the water development industry? That’s not conservative. The Utah Rivers Council believes that embracing the heart of conservatism – conservation – is the key to Utah’s future both for its people and its rivers.