WOW! Isn’t this beautiful!?! Most of us would prefer a nice warm dry place to live, to play, to vacation. Well, come to Moab, probably the warmest driest place in Utah, maybe even more so than Nevada.
I mean, precipitation is only 77% of our average of approximately 10 inches per year, reservoir storage is at 19% of ‘full’, we’re in an “abnormally dry” category of precipitation AND 13% of the state is in an “exceptional drought.”
Wow, come to our nice warm playground in Southeast Utah! But don’t expect to swim much in Ken’s Lake, the waterfall above it has been absent for weeks. I think there may not be enough water around to feed the Faux Falls this year…
But come and stay in our hotels, our timeshares, our motels. You’ll have LOTS of water there, maybe even after our aquifer is sucked completely dry — well, nearly anyway! When are our councils, both City and County, gonna wake up and stop this FRANTIC building of more hotels and more rooms using more water?
So what happens when our aquifer(s) reaches “dangerously low” during tourist season? What happens when Ken’s Lake nearly dries up? What happens when it doesn’t snow enough one winter to replenish our water sources? Have our leaders thought long and hard about THAT possibility or when and/or how to save us locals from dehydration?
I have been on an anguish-filled path these last three to four years with the immense amount of accommodations being constructed while our water sources become more depleted each year. I’d like an answer to this question: “When will Moab think of its residents’ need for water as
an important issue?”
Officials just say: “We desperately need replenishing snow this winter!” WOW!!!
Judy Martinez-Ross
Moab
