Source: The Salt Lake Tribune —
St. George • As far as southern Utah’s largest city has come, its future growth and progress is largely dependent on water, St. George Mayor Michele Randall said Tuesday during her State of the City address.
Speaking to an overflow crowd at the Dixie Convention Center, Randall reminded attendees that, despite recent storms, the area remains in a moderate drought and the city still needs to conserve and find more sources of water.
“Although we’ve had a very wet year this year and we’ve had a lot of moisture … we still have a lot of challenges when it comes to water,” the mayor said.
Randall further lauded the city’s turf-removal efforts. All told, she said, the city has removed 60,000 square feet of grass, which is the equivalent of “taking an 18-inch strip and rolling it from City Hall down past the Arizona border.”
Another conservation highlight, Randall mentioned, is the phase two construction of the city’s ongoing $65 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant. Once it is finished later this year, the expansion project is expected to boost the plant’s capacity to treat wastewater from 17 million gallons to 24 million gallons a day.
It’s part of an effort to ditch the use of culinary water for outdoor watering and replace it with secondary or irrigation water. And while it may not sound palatable, the plant could be used to make the wastewater potable or fit to drink.
“That is what they’re doing in Las Vegas,” the mayor said. “And I know it sounds horribly disgusting, but it just might come to that with [our] water.”
Another water project on tap is Graveyard Wash, a reservoir planned for a city-owned property just off Highway 91 that will store reuse water.
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