Salt Lake City’s mayoral election may be coming in the wake of the neighboring Wasatch Mountains receiving historic snowpack, but Utah’s capital hasn’t escaped the clutches of a yearslong drought.
We chatted with all three candidates for mayor to better understand how they’ll approach water conservation and preserving the Great Salt Lake if they take — or retain — the helm at City Hall.
Why it matters
Utah’s drought is bigger than its capital, but Salt Lake City’s mayor possesses a prominent position in the push for more conservative urban water use and the regionwide effort to preserve the Great Salt Lake.
Worsening conditions with the lake leave the Wasatch Front facing disastrous health, economic and ecological consequences, such as toxic dust clouds, a declining brine fly population and a loss of migrating birds.
What they’ve done
Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who is seeking a second term, has touted her work initiating a process to legally guarantee treated wastewater will continue to flow to the Great Salt Lake, pushing a drought surcharge to target high-volume water users, kick-starting an audit of city water usage, and her administration’s collaboration in creating a less thirsty grass seed.
Former Mayor Rocky Anderson, who is seeking a third term at City Hall after more than a decade away from office, has pointed to his work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the city by nearly a third — an accomplishment he said addresses the root issue with Utah’s dwindling snowpack: climate change.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People on the shore of the Great Salt Lake on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023.
Activist and small-business owner Michael Valentine has never held public office and is running as a first-time candidate. He considers himself an environmentalist who has taken steps as an individual and business owner to be more conscious of water use.
What they say they’ll do if elected
Mendenhall says she will:
• Use the findings of her administration’s water audit — due to be completed this year — to make municipal water usage more efficient. (The city has already identified areas for improvement, the mayor said, such as better insulation of the city fleet’s wash station.)
• Incentivize the use of best-available water conservation technologies in buildings.
Anderson supports:
• Auditing and publicly reporting the city’s water usage.
• Pushing to minimize the use of turf and working with state and federal leaders to help farmers move away from alfalfa.
• Building a coalition to file lawsuits, change policies and influence legislation.
• Setting new conservation goals and working with other cities and the state to further reduce consumption.
• Raising rates on high-volume water users.
Valentine says he:
• Supports updating pipes to reduce the amount of water that is lost before it is even delivered.
• Wants to help farmers transition from thirsty alfalfa crops.
• Supports incentivizing residential turf conversion to xeriscaping.
• Would be a vocal supporter of a lawsuit filed against the state by environmental groups.
• Would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene and protect the lake.
What they see as the city’s role in water conservation
Mendenhall says the city has a responsibility to “leverage every possible tool” to improve conservation efforts and affect decisions made outside of Utah’s capital. Salt Lake City should take every opportunity it is given outside its boundaries to discuss water policy with other decision-makers and share its successes with other municipalities.
Anderson says the city should be setting an example not only for other municipalities but also for the entire region. The former mayor said on top of improving conservation and water accounting efforts, the city should drive an educational campaign to shift attitudes toward conservation
Valentine says Salt Lake City should be a blueprint for other cities in pursuit of solutions.
Election Day is Nov. 21.