As you know this has already been a very difficult year on many levels. We’ve had to make changes and sacrifices that most of us have never had to before. As you also know this year is another bone dry drought year.

You’ve probably been able to measure the rain we’ve gotten, not by inches but by the number of rain drops on our windshields. As a community, you should already know Mount Pleasant had to reduce our watering days down to a single day. You already know that leaves all of us with an extremely difficult choice; do we save our vegetable gardens or our flower gardens and yards?

You may not know the good news is our yards will grow back. What you may not know is we have an irrigation pond that is dry and culinary pumps that are being run to the point of their maximum capacity.

We had a major discussion about water at city council last night and the city is in dialogue with some of our high-volume users such as the hospital, the school district, Wasatch Academy and our local churches about making major schedule changes and sacrifices.

The city will be putting these high-volume users on their own day, having them pull their water in the middle of the night when the rest of us are not scheduled and asking them to sacrifice down to their most important needs.

For instance, they are asking the school district to let their landscaping go so they can keep the regulation fields for football and soccer, but maybe not the practice field. They’re asking that almost all landscaped areas be let go this year, trusting that they will grow back when we get the moisture.

Unfortunately, as drastic as this is, it isn’t enough. In the discussion last night, we wondered how to help everyone understand how bad the situation is.

We talked about sending out watering police with higher fines and swifter and more severe consequences (whatever that might mean). We talked about opening it all up and letting everyone have a free for all until everything just dried up and there simply wasn’t anything left even for drinking or bathing.

Then somebody suggested we send out a letter to discuss how extreme the circumstances have gotten and appeal to our charity and good human nature. For instance, the farmers this last year actually had to drill an additional 80 feet down to find the aquifer again.

If we’re given the choice, we believe the wonderful people in this little mountain family of ours, will realize how vital it is to make some sacrifices on our own, of our own free will and choice, and for the good of each and every one of us.

We know that the color of our lawns the rest of the year is not as important as the food we are trying to produce, the water we need to drink, or the homes we want to keep clean. If that’s truly what we want, we all need to make commitments, because it’s the right thing to do, such as:

– We only water once a week and only once on that day and during the allocated times.

– We stop watering in the middle of the night or without a sprinkler because we don’t think anyone will notice. (It’s not only noticed, the new meters track the time of day the water is being used)

– We look at our personal water usage and make some sacrifices just as the city is asking larger users to do.

– Recognize that restrictions apply to irrigation water as well as culinary.

Some tips that we also might want to try:

– While we may not all be the same religion, we need not wait for our leaders to request a day of fasting and prayers for rain. We can each do that on our own, or we can plan on the first Sunday in September, if the group effort feels more reassuring.

– We can save rinse water to water flowers.

– Turn water off while we’re brushing our teeth.

– Use liquid hand soap, leave water off while lathering hands, turn water on to rinse hands off.

– Regarding flushing: If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.

Just like all the other challenges we’ve had this year, together we can do this. The Lord will bless our efforts. God bless us all in this additional sacrifice we’ve all been asked to make.

Sincerely,

Diane N. Johnson

Concerned Citizen