Your sprinklers are on in a drought, and I know why
So here's the thing about Utah — we talk a lot about water. Like, a *lot* lot. Between the Great Salt Lake shrinking and the snowpack we get (or don't get), it’s always on people’s minds. So when Salt Lake homeowner Janet Hemming noticed the sprinklers running full-blast in Washington Square this week, despite all the drought warnings and efforts to conserve, yeah, no, she wasn't alone in feeling a little confused. And honestly, it gets under your skin when you're trying to do your part and you see something like that in a public space right downtown.
### The Weird Truth About City Water
It turns out, there's a reason for this seemingly wasteful practice, and it’s one of those Salt Lake quirks that outsiders just wouldn't get. A significant portion of the water used to irrigate public spaces and even some private ones along the Wasatch Front isn't culinary water — the stuff you drink. It's secondary water, which means it comes from a completely separate system.
* This secondary water system is often fed by canals and reservoirs that hold untreated water. * It's cheaper than treated water, which is why it's used for large-scale irrigation. * The catch is, you can't really turn it off and on like your tap water without causing problems for the whole system, especially when it's pressurized.
So, while we're all trying to take shorter showers and let our lawns go a little golden, the city's hands are often tied when it comes to those big public green spaces. It's a relic of older infrastructure that's hard to change overnight. It means that even when we're in a serious drought, like the one we just had (and are always kinda in), you'll see those sprinklers running, often at odd hours.
That's the Crossroads, friends — greatest snow on earth and the weirdest liquor laws. It also means we've got to be smart about *our* water usage, because what you see in Washington Square might not be the whole story of the water crisis.
Niki and Chris really dig into these local oddities every morning — catch their take live at mornings.live.