H2Oath campaign slows to a drip as Utah records its driest year
The Utah Division of Water Resources is wrapping up its annual college water conservation campaign Monday, but the division reports that multiple schools have no pledges, and participation is on the decline.
“South of the Wasatch Front, it is hard to get participation,” said Marcie Larson, a public information officer for DWR.
The H2Oath campaign, also known as the Water War, was started in 2016 and encourages students to sign a pledge to conserve their water usage — especially with respect to the drought conditions in the West. The school with the most pledges is given a $5,000 grant to be used for water conservation.
According to data provided by the DWR, only Utah State University and Weber State University have recorded more than 50 pledges for both the past two years. USU won in 2016 with 500 pledges and WSU in 2017 with 546 pledges.
USU is currently leading the 2018 competition with 305 votes as of Thursday. The University of Utah and Brigham Young University have seen increases this year, Larson said, but are still far below being competitive for the grant money.
“USU is way ahead of all the other schools,” she said. “They are being really good water stewards and great examples.”
Snow College is one of the universities that recorded zero pledges.
“I’m not sure of that specific campaign,” said Marci Larsen, the assistant to the president of Snow College — who does share names, albeit different spellings, as the DWR official.
Larsen said in an email that Snow is committed to water conservation and being “good stewards” of the land. Snow installed new sprinkler systems making its system 30 percent more efficient last year, she said.
The pledge asks students to reduce shower times by at least a minute, wait to run dishwashers and washing machines until they are full, and fix leaks within their homes. Six of the nine required commitments include regulating the watering of lawns.
“Even though many students do not have lawns now, this will encourage them to look for more water-wise yards when they do,” Larson said.
Due to a hot, dry summer and overuse of water, 16 of the 49 major Utah reservoirs are currently below 20 percent, and eight of those are below 5 percent, according to a report from the U.S. Drought Report. Utah is currently in a state of emergency as declared by Gov. Gary Herbert.
“We just had the driest year on record, statewide,” said Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
Drought conditions are worse in southern Utah, McInerney said, the same place the DWR struggles to get pledges.
Larson said the competition may be stopped Monday, as USU has a commanding lead.
—carter.moore@aggiemail.usu.edu
@carterthegrreat