LETTER: Wasting the water supply

To the editor:

As an incoming freshman to this university I have fallen in love with Logan and Utah State University. The tap water is delicious, and I’ve heard from many sources that it is some of the best water in the world. This makes me feel honored to live in this beautiful valley. For one of my classes I got the opportunity to hear from a respected professor as he talked to us about “going green” and sustainability. One thing that stuck out to me was: he said average water usage in this area is 200 gallons of water per person.

This outraged me. How could this be possible? I thought of my water usage habits and couldn’t see myself using that much water. As I walked around campus more and more, I realized one of the true water wasting problems on campus – sprinklers. Yes, the little spouts shooting water constantly to keep the precious grass green. Now, I love a beautiful campus as much as the next college student, but there is a certain point at which the constant watering becomes ridiculous. Every morning I wake up and get on my long board, and in between the Student Living Center and the TSC there must be 10 spots on the sidewalks where I have to get off my board and walk around the puddles. For anyone who doesn’t know, water will ruin the bearings in your long board or scooter wheels.

I realize that the watering schedule is controlled by the grounds keeping crew, but something needs to be done about this. The people’s voice must be heard. I, for one, am tired of being sprayed with water as I walk to class. Grounds crew, I am calling for something to be done. I realize that winter is coming and soon this topic will be irrelevant. But next summer, and the summer after that, this topic will be brought up again by tired pedestrians, scooter riders, longboarders and people whose parked cars are sprayed with water all day. I am calling for an increased effort to conserve our most precious resource on the planet – clean drinking water.

Austin Madsen