File: Salt Lake County says it has back water usage on its golf courses. Water watchers say Utahns have done a good job of cutting their usage this summer. (Martha Harris/KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE COUNTY — The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District is happy with the results after asking customers to conserve by reducing water use by 10% back in May.
The request was categorized as a minimal level 1 voluntary reduction.
Jordan Valley Water Public Information Manager Linda Cook said that they are pleased with the results. She attributes help from the soil still being wet from winter, mountain runoff, and people reducing water usage for an overall better water picture. Cook also said reservoir levels remain around 70%, which in mid-July, is not bad.
However, Cook said we can collectively do more.
“Be mindful of outdoor watering, lawns like to go dormant this time of year, they will come back, also to be mindful going into the fall, because a lot of times they’ll set their sprinklers for summer and then forget as fall comes up and be watering their lawns the same amount as they would in the summer,” Cook said.
Hydrating our landscapes remains the largest consumer of usable water. Watering your lawn could use up to 1,500-3,000 gallons of water, Cook said. She suggests drastic landscape watering reductions. Doing so would preserve water for household use into the foreseeable future.
Right now, Cook says we use 60% of our culinary water on outdoor landscaping within just 4 months of the year.
Cook said to water in the evening or at night to reduce the amount of evaporation and shorten the length of watering. There are incentives around Salt Lake County for converting your yard to a water-saving landscape. You can get more information on this at localscapes.com and utahwatersavers.com.
No matter what, she says, you should be proud of what you’ve done so far.
“Keep up the great work and we’ll get through this together,” said Cook.