SALT LAKE CITY — More than 50 Wasatch Front businesses, as well as the Utah Rivers Council, are asking Utah’s governor and legislature to do more to conserve water.
“They need to do far more from a conservation standpoint,” said Steve Schmit, owner of Western Rivers Flyfisher. “We need to do something and we hope the governor is more aggressive, and the state overall has done very little from a conservation standpoint.”
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In a letter to the governor, the 51 businesses ask for a 2% reduction in water usage per year.
“We need water,” Schmit said. “Not just the trout that we fish for in our streams but also for water quality, I mean it all trickles down to us eventually.”
Wasatch Touring also signed the letter.
“The levels of the rivers and the reservoirs that we love to play and explore and recreate in have been going down,” said Co-owner Dylan Timmer. “It's definitely coming to a point where it's going to take kind of a rallying cry for this.”
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Another business calling for water conservation is Mark Miller Subaru.
“We have a lot of outdoorsy customers and they are out there,” owner Jeff Miller said. “And they are on the lakes and up in these mountains and they are seeing these rivers.”
The Subaru dealer is already doing a lot to conserve water and energy. From solar panels and xeriscaping to a recycled-water car wash, Miller says he is happy so many businesses signed the letter.
“It’s heartening to see that others feel the same way that we do,” Miller said.
