Now that we’re into the summer months it was time to sit down to discuss our water situation after such a great winter. Castle Country Radio had the opportunity to speak over the telephone with Utah Division of Water Resources Drought Coordinator, Laura Haskell to get all the details.

“It absolutely was a record water year, we are thrilled with how much water we got, and how safely it was able to run off,” said Haskell. Most city and county officials were very concerned about possible flooding when the spring run-off took place but we were very lucky that temperatures cooperated by allowing a slow run-off this year.

Many folks thought that after years of drought like conditions it would take many winters to replenish the water levels but we were lucky in that it only took one winter. “Utah is one of the driest states in the nation and this could be our year of opportunity. There has been some great momentum on water issues during the drought, we’ve had new legislation that requires integrated land and water planning. All the momentum and despite having more water right now, we want to be able to keep that momentum going to prepare us for the future,” said Haskell. Although, we were able to fill up reservoirs this summer we still need to be aware and practice water conservation.

The Utah Division of Water Resources has a great website/social media page that is very informative for water users. “We have the Facebook page for the weekly watering guide, so you can just get that in your Facebook feed if you’d like to or you can go to https://slowtheflow.org/ and that has the weekly lawn watering guide that gives you suggestions of how much your grass may need that week. It has links for rebates for a water efficient toilet or other things around your house that you may be able to switch out,” explained Haskell. The water guide is broken up by regions in the state and it will show you how many times you should be watering for the week.

For more information and details about water conservation visit the Division of Water Resources website at https://water.utah.gov/