Water & Power

Water and power are huge issues for our city. How we address these issues could make or break our city. If we ignore these problems, we will be facing shortages.

We need to do a deep dive into our water supply to better determine how much water we have for use. We are building new wells and adding water tanks which will help us to provide water and the correct water pressure to all areas of our city. But we need to do more. Water conservation and reuse are critical to our future.

We recently passed a water conservation ordinance which limits the amount of turf in front yards and eliminates turf for Industrial projects. Our efforts have shown success in decreasing our per capita water usage. Can we do better? Yes! Because our ordinance doesn’t match the water conservancy district requirements, we don’t qualify for programs like flip the strip. I would like us to meet the district standards, or provide funding for our residents to help them change their landscaping to decrease water use. We should also look at bulk purchases of rain barrels, smart sprinklers and other water saving devices, so that we can offer our residents these items at a discounted price.

None of these efforts will be enough without water reuse and that comes with a big price tag. We are currently working on a sewer expansion which will include reuse.

Power is becoming an equally important issue in the city. Rocky Mountain Power is struggling to keep up with growth in the state. We have several data centers which drive our economy, provide jobs, and donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to non profits in our city. They require a large amount of power. Every new home requires power, every new business requires power. We recently approved two small gas fired power plants along with solar and battery storage. These will help but we need much more. If we continue down the path of gas fired plants, we will destroy one of the greatest things in our community, our clean air. We must look at alternate means to produce power, including nuclear.

If we are willing to be innovative in our approach, our future with water and power is bright.