Even after two years of above-average winter precipitation, much of the southwestern United States is still suffering from a long-term megadrought. With a rapidly growing population, Utah has placed an increased emphasis on water conservation in recent years.

So how does Utah compare to other states in terms of water consumption?

Utah ranks second in per capita water consumption in the United States at 169 gallons per day. That’s just behind Idaho at 184 gallons per person per day.

Figures like these from Statista are often used as evidence that residents of the Beehive State are water wasters. After all, for one person to use that much water on a daily basis, people may have to take decadent daily baths in large hot tubs or long showers that use up every drop of hot water.

In reality, however, the amount of water a person in the United States uses is probably determined more by geographic location than by water waste.

Living in a desert environment

Each state determines how it reports its water consumption, so it is not always correct to look only at per capita consumption. In some places, this figure only takes into account domestic indoor consumption, while in others it also includes water used outdoors for watering gardens or for agriculture.

As the Energy Resource Center explains, “Obviously, states that don’t get as much rain have higher water usage as homeowners try to maintain their lawns and landscaping. States with more rain and precipitation logically use less water.”

This means that someone living in Memphis, which gets 55 inches of rain annually, can comfortably bathe in a large tub every day because they don’t have to use water in their yard or garden.

In contrast, a homeowner in Delta, Utah, may have to make do with a five-minute shower once a week if he wants to have a beautiful bluegrass lawn or grow a few tomatoes. Delta gets just 8 inches of rainfall per year — about half the amount of rainfall in Salt Lake City, according to CurrentResults.

Now let’s get back to the data on which states have the highest water use per capita. After Idaho and Utah, Wyoming follows with 156 gallons, Arizona with 145 gallons, Hawaii with 144 gallons, Nevada with 126 gallons, and Colorado with 123 gallons.

Of these water-consuming states, Hawaii, commonly considered a tropical paradise, is the only one not in the Intermountain West. But although Hawaii is considered a tropical jungle, much of the country is quite dry. Honolulu, for example, receives only 16.4 inches of rainfall per year – less than Logan (19 inches), Ogden (18.8 inches) or Provo (17.2 inches).

Utah’s unique water history

When the first settlers arrived in Utah in 1844, one of their first tasks was to dig ditches and canals to carry water from City Creek to newly dug and planted fields. At that time, growing food was much more important than having a well-kept lawn.

It is worth noting that these people knew little about irrigation because they came mainly from the Eastern United States and Europe – areas where sufficient rainfall ensured that no one ever had to use a hose to water their fields.

They learned irrigation through trial and error, and after just a few years it was clear that the amount of water available would not meet the population’s needs unless it was carefully managed.

An article on pioneer irrigation in the Utah History Encyclopedia states that in 1865, “the Territorial Legislature granted individual irrigators the authority to organize themselves into irrigation districts. The districts then had the power to collect water or canal fees from their members for the operation and maintenance of their canals. Two years later, the irrigation districts were given the authority to organize irrigation companies.”

Before electricity or natural gas existed, waterworks were Utah’s first and most important public utilities. “In pioneer times, one of the first public meetings in a valley was to appoint a watermaster to supervise the distribution of water,” says the Utah History Encyclopedia.

A leading role in water management

Rather than being as wasteful with water as some imagine, Utah has played a key role in the development and allocation of water resources.

In a 1997 speech about Utah’s water heritage, LeRoy W. Hooton Jr., who served as Salt Lake City’s public services director for 28 years, said, “Without irrigation, their (the pioneers’) attempt to settle the Salt Lake Valley would have failed… Their efforts led to the establishment of water laws and agricultural practices that others would emulate. The Mormon experience was later imitated in the federal government’s land reclamation program.”

In fact, Utah’s early water management efforts were so successful that they created water in abundance. By 1892, Utah had more than 1,000 miles of irrigation ditches and canals and more than 500,000 acres of irrigated farmland.

By the early 20th century, Utah’s water management was so efficient that it could not only provide food for the population, but also provide enough water for beautiful public parks and landscaping, and allow residents to maintain manicured lawns and gardens not normally found in desert areas.

In 1924, farmers in Weber County reached an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to develop the Weber River. The Utah History Encyclopedia reports, “The Weber River project was the first in the country to be a purely multi-purpose project, incorporating recreation, municipal and industrial uses, fish and wildlife, flood control, and irrigation programs.”

The next step

In recent years, Utah has experienced unprecedented growth that coincided with what one study called the worst megadrought in the Western U.S. in 1,200 years. In 2022, a report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute showed that Utah’s population grew by more than 61,000 in a single year, most of which was due to net migration.

This dramatic increase occurred despite the fact that no major new dams have been built in Utah since the construction of Sand Hollow Dam in southern Utah in 2002 and Jordanelle Dam in northern Utah in 1993. In other words, the water needs of hundreds of thousands of new Utah residents were dependent on and met by previous water projects implemented by water managers who had the foresight to conserve the state’s limited water resources.

In 2022, Governor Spencer Cox, in collaboration with several state agencies, released Utah’s Coordinated Water Action Plan. Over the past three years, the Utah State Legislature has passed a number of measures to mitigate the impacts of the drought, but has also signaled that more needs to be done.

Additionally, organizations such as the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, Central Utah Water Conservancy District and others have been encouraging Utah homeowners to improve their own water management through programs such as Localscapes for several years.

By taking an active role in conserving water, Utahns today can ensure that the state’s most valuable natural resource will continue to meet the state’s needs well into the future.

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