Councilmembers debated the utility of starting a secondary metering system that would help residents monitor their outdoor water use, since they believe most of the waste comes from residents forgetting to turn off their automatic sprinklers when it rains, for example.
Outdoor water use continues to pose a conservation quandary for policy makers and city utilities. Pricing schemes, conservation education programs, and monitoring are all on possible solutions for helping residents conserve more water.
Source: The Standard Examiner
An ongoing study at Utah State University has found that residents do not uniformly prefer one conservation approach. Some residents prefer price-based programs that would offer financial incentives for conserving water and burdens for over-users, while others prefer simply having more information about their water use (more comparison tables, indoor and outdoor meters). (Endter-Wada et al., Forthcoming). This may prompt more municipalities to offer a variety of conservation programs that can be subscribed to.
Thanks for posting this Katie. We are under contract to purchase a home in Bountiful, and just Friday I requested information about the water usage on the property, whether it has access to Weber water, etc. It is not a huge yard, and much of it is not lawn, but this is a concern of mine. That's crazy that Bountiful uses so much over the average! On another note, I saw the most awesome xeriscaped lawn in Bountiful I have ever seen. It was a complete, mature cactus garden with so many varieties represented. I loved it, but it probably wouldn't be the best with kids :) It was almost as awesome as the Silver Garden at Longwood Gardens in PA (http://philadelphia.about.com/od/photo_galleries/ig/longwood_welcome_spring/longwood_winter_116.htm)
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