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Municipal and Industrial Water Supply Studies
Over the past 40 years, the Utah Division of
Water Resources (DWRe) has employed various procedures to
obtain needed municipal and industrial (M&I) water data.
In recent years, these procedures have become more comprehensive.
When DWRe began water planning in the 1960s, available data
consisted mainly of supplies and uses for the entire state.
At that time, Utah's agriculture uses far exceeded M&I
uses. M&I water use was generated by multiplying estimated
per capita rates by census population data.
By the early 1980s, M&I diversions made
up a larger percentage of total statewide water uses; and
with unprecedented population growth, the entire water community
began an increased focus on M&I water supplies and uses.
The Utah Division of Water Rights, in cooperation with the
U. S. Geological Survey launched a program to collect yearly
statewide M&I data. The procedure involved mailing a survey
designed to query each major public water supplier about its
sources of water supply and uses. This program continues today
and is now a cooperative effort, administered by the U. S.
Geological Survey and the Divisions of Water Resources, Drinking
Water and Water Rights. In addition, the U. S. Geological
Survey summarizes national M&I water use data for comparative
purposes every five years in the report, Estimating Use of
Water in the United States. The DWRe relied on both data sources
in its planning efforts throughout the 1980s.
After the issuance of the Utah State Water
Plan in 1990, the DWRe recognized the need to specifically
address the quickly growing demands for M&I water within
each hydrologic basin of the state. Accordingly, DWRe commenced
the effort to quantify in detail all the uses of both potable
(drinking) and non-potable M&I water in each of the community,
non-community, and private domestic water systems of the state
The Municipal and Industrial Water Supply Studies
were completed for the eleven hydrologic basins with data
gathered between the years of 1992 and 1998 from each of over
450 water systems of the state. The purpose of these M&I
studies is to report present M&I water supply and use
data. The reports contain total potable and non-potable basin
M&I water supply and use as well as per capita use. Information
from these reports has been used in various statewide planning
documents and has been used in the Utah State Water Plan individual
basin plans.
With the completion of the Municipal and Industrial
Water Supply Studies for all of the hydrologic basins of the
state, the DWRe now offers these M&I reports to enhance
the capabilities of water managers of the state to quickly
and accurately access information about Utah's M&I water
use. This program continues to update M&I water data for
each hydrologic area of the state every five years.
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