Spring Runoff Conference discusses future of Utah’s water supply
Utah’s lakes and reservoirs have been in headlines for years concerning alarmingly low water levels. According to Lake Powell Water Database, the popular recreation spot is 32% of full capacity, a record low. A similar picture is painting itself for the Great Salt Lake, as the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources indicates a 44% surface area loss.
The annual Spring Runoff Conference at Utah State University brings dozens of professionals together to discuss these water issues and better water management in an effort to protect Utah’s major water bodies.
The conference took place March 26-27, at Cache County Fairgrounds and USU’s Eccles Conference Center. Every year, the conference invites undergraduate, graduate and water industry professionals to present research.
Nathan Daugs is a manager at Cache Water District. The Cache Water District was formed in 2016 after a vote by Cache County locals.
“One primary objective of the Cache Water District is making sure water rights are being used,” Daugs said. “Also planning for future water use, ensuring a viable agriculture community here.”
The Cache Water District aims for water management practices centered around long-term conservation. The conference shares the same goals, bringing together like-minded agencies to combat barriers facing proper water management.
“We try to focus on the water issues of Northern Utah,” Daugs said. “We did a presentation on a study that was done last year on the economic benefit of the Bear River system.”
Bear River flows through southwestern Wyoming, through southeastern Idaho, and feeds back into the Great Salt lake through Northern Utah. This river system is the largest tributary of the Great Salt Lake, providing nearly 65% of the lake’s water. Bear River is also a source of income.
“What Bear River provides the communities it flows through — which is three states, not just Utah — is just over two billion dollars in annual income in jobs, agricultural production and power generation,” Daugs said.
The second day of the conference shifted focus towards research surrounding water issues and solutions. A variety of presentations, both from students and designated speakers, addressed current water policies and future directions.
“A number of students are working on projects that would have implications that are really, really wide,” Daugs said. “There were 30 different research posters that the students and faculty were presenting.”
Burdette Baker, an assistant professor and irrigation specialist at USU, presented at the first day of the conference and was on panel for the second day of the conference.
“We’re working with the Division of Water Rights on identifying accurate and practical ways to quantify the difference in water consumed with different agricultural water optimization efforts,” Baker said.
Irrigation on major farmlands represents a huge portion of the world’s water usage. According to the European Space Agency, approximately 70% of the world’s freshwater goes to irrigation. Because of this mass consumption, the best irrigation methods take up much of the conversation regarding water management.
“It depends marginally on what your goal is,” Baker said. “When we are talking about irrigation efficiency, we are talking about how much water the plants actually use relative to how much water is applied.”
According to Baker, full knowledge of each irrigation method and its designated purpose is critical to creating an efficient system. Flood irrigation is a method utilizing small trenches between crops that water is run through.
“If your goal is to maximize the amount of water that goes to the Great Salt Lake, for example, then a lot of irrigation inefficiencies don’t matter,” Baker said. “When you’re running water across a field, any inefficiencies lead to water running off the field or draining to where the top roots are. Eventually, it contributes to flows to the lake. So if you improve the efficiency, you’re just changing the flow of the water.”
One of the most easily available surface irrigation methods utilizes sprinklers. This is the most common method both commercially and residentially.
“On the other hand, if you have sprinklers that are throwing water through the air, the water has an opportunity to evaporate before it even reaches the ground,” Baker said. “In that case, that part of inefficiency is lost from the hydrologic basin. That would work against the goal of maximizing water.”
According to Baker, calculating the net effect between the amount of water sprinklers use — which is typically less — against what is lost to evaporation can prove a difficult task.
“It’s remarkably difficult because you can only do one thing at a time,” Baker said. “You can’t irrigate the same piece of ground in two different ways at the same moment in time. How do you know what the water use would have been had you not made the change?”
The Great Salt Lake’s depletion has been a particular problem of focus for Utah’s water community. However, levels have risen in the past two years.
“There’s still very active efforts to balance the inflows into the lake with what has been determined as the best operating levels,” Baker said. “What’s important is reducing consumptive water use, or any water that evaporates or transpired by a plant.”
Efforts are focused on residential landscapes and agricultural irrigation, as these are the two biggest sources of consumptive water use.
“It took us the better part of 40 years to go from record high water levels to record lows in the lake,” Baker said. “This is not a quick ship to turn around. You’ve really got to look at the long term plans. I’m quite hopeful that a series of solutions, some of which are already in place, will come together to maintain the lake.”
The scope of the valley’s water challenges vary as precipitation and runoff levels change yearly. What really matters, according to Daugs, is the long-term projections for the state’s water supply.
“In Cache County it can change year to year,” Daugs said. “We’ve had two really good wet years. Last year and this year should be another above average year. It’s more of a long-term view where we don’t really have very much storage water.”
According to Salt Lake City Public Utilities, a majority of the city’s water comes from streams in the Wasatch canyons, local watersheds and large reservoirs of treated water. Smaller cities like Logan must rely on groundwater supplies.
“Along the Wasatch Front cities rely on multiple reservoirs for backup water supply,” Daugs said. “They have a couple years worth of stormwater. Whereas in Cache County, most of our canal companies rely on stream water. So if the stream runs half of what it normally does, they get half the water. Not having that storage is one concern going forward.”
Snowpack is the biggest contributor of water supply in Utah, with rain coming in second. According to the Utah Division of Water Resources, 95% of our water comes from snowpack.
“The snowpack is all our reservoirs,” Daugs said. “It’s switched to a more rain driven scenario this year with less snow. This is one thing we try to plan for in advance, as it could affect our groundwater supply. We’re just trying to figure out how to make sure we have a reliable water supply.”
Sufficient funding is the first step for agencies addressing water management and conservation.
“This year, thanks to our senator Chris Wilson, we were able to get a little over $500,000 for USU to do a comprehensive groundwater study,” Daugs said. “We know how much groundwater we really have, and to get an idea of what the annual recharge rate of that is. We don’t want to be like some aquifers in the state that take more than what’s going in.”
According to Daugs, another goal of studies like this is to find other sites for water storage to keep the state afloat during drier years.
The theme of the conference centered on collaborations of different fields and agencies as the best method of efficient water use.
“The states are looking to make sure that, with all other water development projects going on, that water levels are coming up,” Daugs said. “That takes working across some big stretches of water. You’ve got to get the agricultural users on board, get the environmental groups together and the researchers that have the real data.”
Every group and resident is affected by the ways in which water is used. According to Daugs, working together instead of against is the only way to safeguard Utah’s water stores.
“We need to get loads of different groups to work together on one singular goal, which would be a resilient water supply,” Daugs said. “There may be a time where there’s not enough water and we need to choose which groups can cut their water use. We’re in the starting phase of getting everybody together.”