ST. GEORGE — While discussing an update to the city’s water conservation plan Thursday, the St. George City Council considered the possibility of implementing fines for water wasters.
St. George had a water waste ordinance just over a century ago, Scott Taylor, the city’s water services director, told the council. In 1909, residents would be fined up to $25 or face up to 25 days in the city jail. Today the 1909 fine would translate to nearly $700, he said.
For many years it has been city policy to educate rather than enforce. Individuals who wasted water through various means – be it through leaking water systems or watering during seasonal water bans – would end up having city employees talk to the violators about how to fix the problem and little more.
While this has worked in the past to a point, the growing emphasis on water conservation may require a form of enforcement where none has been for a long time.
“I think we ought to look into that a little bit more,” St. George Mayor Jon Pike said. “We’ve got to help people realize how important it is. And it’s not just individuals and residences, it’s churches and businesses too. … They’re over irrigating some of these lawns so much.”
Rene Fleming, the city’s energy and water resources services coordinator, had approached the city council in 2015 with a proposal for an ordinance fining those she called “egregious” water wasters.
Read more: City hears proposal to implement fines against egregious water wasters
At the time, Fleming suggested water wasters be given at least two warnings before being fined. While the council appeared to favor the idea, the proposed ordinance did not come to pass.
If the city does choose to impose fines on water wasters, Fleming said she would like to see collected fines go to fund the city’s water conservation efforts.
The state requires cities to update their water conservation plans every five years. In addition to discussing of a potential fine for water wasters, other methods of conserving water were also reviewed and considered.
Requiring less landscaping, as well as promoting more water-efficient landscaping via ordinance was also discussed. Other ideas include helping city water users create water budgets, as well as sending bills to customers that would show a general breakdown of how much water people in the neighborhood use.
The city currently promotes water conservation by offering free irrigation system audits through the Washington County Water Conservancy, offering water-efficient landscaping workshops, demonstration gardens, summertime watering restrictions, rebates for replacing old toilets, among other programs.
“We save a lot of water by replacing toilets,” Fleming said, referring to a rebate program St. George has that helps replace old, water-wasting toilets with newer, water-efficient ones.
From 2013-2015, the city saved an estimated 500,000 gallons of water by replacing over 1,000 toilets.
Read more: Washington County has decreased water use by over 1 billion gallons, officials say
According to 2017 data presented to the council, most of the water used by costumers was used between 4-8 a.m. This actually caused a loss in pressure for some St. George homes which prompted city officials to ask residents to find alternate times to do their watering.
Approximately 60 percent of the water St. George consumes goes to watering lawns, Fleming said.
Residential use is estimated to be 190 gallons per capita per day, she said. That includes the roughly 6,000 second homes in St. George owned by seasonal residents.
Combined use of residential, commercial and industrial averages out to be about 254 gallons per person per day.
Taylor said that while the population has grown, water use has largely remained the same in recent years thanks to more water-friendly landscaping practices.
“We’ve seen less grass and more xeriscaping,” Taylor said.
Future improvements and goals for the city’s water conservation efforts include replacing failing cast iron water lines, improving water metering, reducing per capita use by 10 percent by 2025 and allocating $50,000 to annual conservation programs.
Pike stressed the importance of the conservation efforts, adding that the city won’t be able to grow to its fullest the way people currently use water.
“The reality is folks, we won’t get the full build-out of our city if we keep using water like this,” Pike said.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @MoriKessler
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
Yes, let’s fine the residents so that the golf coarses don’t run out of water!
What about all the carwashes we have and all of the parks at least the golf course is bringing in revenue and most of them use reclaimed water
All golf courses, schools and parks in Washington County use secondary water composed of reuse water from the St. George sewage treatment plant and other non-potable sources.
Not The Ledges golf course, it comes right out of the city well.
Fines huh?…well then, you better start fining the Schools that allow 1,000’s of gallons per cycle to rush on down the sidewalk into the storm drains……yeah, like you really give a crap, as long as you have enough water to continue the Home Rush to build on every square inch of southern Utah land
We should build a border wall around Washington County, and keep out the Californians!
Or to keep people like you, in. I hate to tell you uniformed , but it’s not just Californians moving here. In our new little neighborhood of 45 homes, there’s only one family from California. Only half are locals, all others are from other states.
All golf courses, schools and parks in Washington County use secondary water composed of reuse water from the St. George sewage treatment plant and other non-potable sources.
If you’re going to fine water wasters then fine the biggest abuser of them all …the City Of St George !!
Oh yeah and dont forget the idiot’s that water their lawns at 4 am when its 23 degrees outside because they dont have the educational ability to shut off the sprinkler system
And yet these thinkers are approving building permits like crazy. What about that development across the freeway from Sun River that is going to have lakes? The people in power are somehow linked to all of this development IMO. Southern Utah’s millionaire club. The Kalifornication of Washington County. Thanks to the good old boy system.
Go ahead and fine for wrongful use, have ordinances requiring desert landscapes but then all golf courses need to be put into desert landscapes as well, and no artificial ponds in developments. I doubt many would want to move here if that were done, only those who appreciate the desert. That alone may save this city from invasion of the grass growers from CA. Tell me, why do we want growth?
All golf courses, schools and parks in Washington County use secondary water composed of reuse water from the St. George sewage treatment plant and other non-potable sources.
Actually, I believe there is at least one golf course that uses culinary water. That aside secondary water is still water and water that could at some point be treated to culinary standard. Also, a big problem with secondary water is that unlike culinary water it is generally not metered, so people can use with abandon. Unmetered secondary water has been a big topic at state meetings including the governor’s Executive Water Finance Board meetings. Our current water usage in Washington County is 303 gallons per capita per day including secondary and that’s a guess as far as I can tell due to lack of metering.
Our community has two taps into a City of St. George water line and both are metered and billed monthly.
We want growth only to tick off unfriendly people like you in hopes you will move away and blame EVERYTHING on others in you new city. .
Great idea. If you make water more expensive people will be more careful with how much they use and waste. We live in a desert.
Just another scheme to put more taxes on the people. And to try to put pressure on the people to get behind the pipeline.
Are there special water lines that I am not aware of that go from the sewage plants directly to the golf courses, schools and parks in Washington County? Just wondering.
Just the water lines that run “down hill” from city hall
Something else to think about. Apparently a new water park is going to be built in Middleton. According to news reports, this water park will use approx 140,000 gallons of water each day the park is in operation. But the developers plan to use recycled and filtered water, reducing demand on the city’s supply.
How long is it going to be before the city starts belly aching about the use of reclaimed water by everyone other than their own golf courses.
Using less water, having smaller homes, washing cars less….these will be good things for Southern Utah.
Makes me glad I only have grass in the backyard. Out of sight, out of mind.
So the common theme here is that somebody else should take responsibility. Not a single comment along the lines of “We” or “I” need to be part of the solution. We’re doomed if that’s really the case.