OPINION: 'Sen. Mitt Romney’s plan to study a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean is yet another attempt to shape the desert to our liking, and it is set up to fail,' writes Nate Housley, a founding member of Save Our Great Salt Lake.
By Nate Housley | Special to The TribuneRecently, the New York Times’ podcast The Daily featured a story about Great Salt Lake. As most of us are now aware, the lake at the center of northern Utah’s ecosystem is shrinking.
The Daily asked probing questions as to how Salt Lake City may respond in the increasingly likely scenario that demand for water outpaces the supply. The Times reporter asks Laura Briefer, director of Salt Lake City’s Department of Public Utilities, if she has the authority to curb residential growth in the cities and towns that the department services.
Policymakers have been slow to update this 19th century paradigm. For example, subsidizing our municipal water rates with property taxes makes our water some of the cheapest in the country, providing little incentive for users to conserve. This is in addition to the system of secondary water, where old irrigation channels flow through residential neighborhoods unmetered and allow homeowners to flood-irrigate their property for a small fee.
Millions of our tax dollars are going into a fund to help build the Bear River Development Project, a project that would cost billions and would mean a death sentence for the vulnerable ecosystem of the lake.