WaterDiminished Utah snowpack threatens Salt Lake City water supply
Studies of water use from 2005 to 2010 show that Utahans used more water for public supply than any other state, despite Utah being ranked the second most arid within the country. Significantly lower levels of Utah snowpack this winter are the biggest climate challenge now facing Salt Lake City: The Northeastern part of the country is inundated with record amounts of snow, but Salt Lake City’s snowpack is 69 percent below the 30-year average.
According to Ralph Becker, the mayor of Salt Lake City, significantly lower levels of Utah snowpack this winter are the biggest climate challenge now facing the city.
The National Resources Conservation Centerreports that the Northeastern part of the country is inundated with record amounts of snow, but Salt Lake City’s snowpack is 69 percent below the 30-year average.
“We have built all our infrastructure for water around the snowpack,” warned Becker.
Think Progressreportsthat in January, Brian McInerney, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, told the local Fox affiliate that Utah temperatures had averaged five degrees higher than average over the first half of 2015, calling it “incredibly significant when you talk about snowpack.”
“Warmer weather has helped cause more precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow, which has contributed to Salt Lake City’s low snowpack,” he said.
According to a reportwhich measured water use from 2005 to 2010, Utahans used more water for public supply than any other state, despite being ranked the second most arid in the country. Further, more than three quarters the state’s electricity is derived from water-intensive sources such as coal, adding to the fears that major changes must be made.
“Climate change is most significantly affecting our water infrastructure,” Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy told last Monday to group of city leaders. “What you all invested in 40, 50 years ago is now needing significant repair, as well as looking at the new challenges we’re seeing on the drinking water side.”
She added that President Barack Obama had already requested that the EPA further fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federal-financing plan for clean water projects.
Salt Lake City is also among the more than 1,000 U.S. cities that have pledged to meet carbon emission reductions set by the Kyoto Protocol, which the national government failed to ratify in 2005. This includes working to reduce the carbon footprint by 20 percent below the 2005 level by 2020, and up to 80 percent below the 2005 level by 2050.
Mayor Becker also plans to invest in decreasing transportation emissions, with improved investing in bike lanes and public transit, as well as construction to make the area more pedestrian friendly and traffic efficient.
These efforts are promising, but the ideas of Becker and other leaders will have to withstand further scrutiny and attack from within the state as well. Just last week, members of the House of Representatives passed a bill supporting a request to withdraw EPA carbon reductions, making the future course of Salt Lake City water preservation still uncertain.
