Nation’s Largest Public Opinion Gathering Finds Utahns are willing to use less water
85 percent of Utahns want to reduce water use by 2050 and most do not want municipal/industrial water to come at the expense of food production
SALT LAKE CITY (Aug. 6, 2015) — Findings from nearly 53,000 residents surveyed as part of Envision Utah’s Your Utah, Your Future campaign show water is a top concern for Utahns as the state continues to grow. The survey also indicated that the average preference is to decrease water use by at least 23%, while not taking water from agricultural use.
“Utahns said they’re very willing to conserve,” said Robert Grow, President & CEO of Envision Utah. “They’d rather have new municipal supplies come at the expense of their own lawns than at the expense of agriculture. They’re very willing to cut back on grass in our yards and parks, although they stopped short of saying we should have almost no grass.”
There are competing uses for Utah’s limited water supply: agriculture, residences, businesses, habitat, recreation and energy production, to name a few. In order to preserve agricultural and wildlife use, residents surveyed were willing to reduce outdoor, indoor and business/industrial use.
The survey also found that Utahns are willing to:
Landscape to include drought-tolerant vegetation and build smaller yards with less grass in yards/parks.
Install efficient watering systems, such as drip systems, to conserve water use.
Build large water projects if they are needed to accommodate growth even as we conserve water resources.
Envision Utah’s Your Utah, Your Future campaign became the nation’s largest public outreach effort, gathering nearly 53,000 Utah voices and opinions through a two month online survey that was cross-checked with a Dan Jones random sample survey. The study identified eleven key issues: agriculture, air quality, recreation, disaster resilience, public lands, transportation and communities, housing and cost of living, education, energy, jobs and economy and water. For more information, visit http://envisionutah.org/.
