The 2022 session of the Utah Legislature is going to be a very busy session for the water community. There are a lot of water bills that are being proposed, which are summarized below. More water bills are also expected to be filed as the session goes on.
HB 21 – School and Child Care Center Water Testing
Rep. Stephen G. Handy
House Bill 21 requires each school and child care center to
test their water taps for lead by December 31, 2023. The samples must be
submitted for testing to a certified laboratory that has entered into a
memorandum of understanding with the Division of Water Quality. Tests are not
required for taps that have been tested within the past six years. Subject to
appropriations, the Division will pay the laboratory for the costs of the
testing. If a test result shows actionable levels of lead, the school or child
care center must take steps to stop using the water tap or reduce the lead
level below actionable levels. Administrative rules will be drafted regarding
procedures and standards for reducing the lead levels, as well as possible
grants to pay for the costs associated with remediation actions. The bill seeks
to appropriate $3.5 million from the American Rescue Plan funds to pay for the
testing.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
HB 33: Instream Flow Amendments
Rep. Joel Ferry
House Bill 33 would amend Utah’s instream flow statute (Utah Code § 73-3-30) to allow water rights to be used to benefit Great Salt Lake levels and other sovereign lands. Currently, the statute is limited to stream channels, whereas the bill would allow water rights to be used in Great Salt Lake and other sovereign lands if the use: (1) contributes to the propagation or maintenance of wildlife; (2) the management of state parks; or (3) the reasonable preservation or enhancement of the natural aquatic environment. The bill would also add the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands to the list of state agencies that can file change applications under the statute, which currently includes the Divisions of Wildlife Resources and the Division of State Parks. The bill would also allow right holders or water right lessees to file change applications to support instream flows or to support sovereign lands in accordance with the above requirements for one to ten years.
Importantly, the bill would remove the so-called “priority penalty” under the current statute, which requires the State Engineer to administer an instream flow change application according to the date the application was filed rather than its underlying priority date. This priority penalty usually makes instream flow change applications the most junior water right in the stream channel where the instream flow is located, which has limited the effectiveness of instream flow applications by allowing other right holders, including junior right holders, to divert and use water intended for instream purposes.
Rep. Ferry’s bill also responds directly to the HCR 10 report, which the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality issued in 2020 in response to a request from the Legislature that asked the agencies to work with stakeholders to identify ways to support flows to Great Salt Lake. Among other things, the report suggested amending Utah Code § 73-3-30 to better support Great Salt Lake.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
HB 37 – State Water Policy Amendments
Rep. Keven J. Stratton
House Bill 37 makes a minor modification to the State’s water policy in Utah Code section 73-1-21. The added wording is underlined in the quoted language: “Utah will promote…continued improvements in the management of water resources through protection, restoration, and science-based evaluation of Utah watersheds, increased reservoir capacity, and aquifer recharge or aquifer storage and recovery”
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
HB 64: Drinking Water Amendments
Rep. Christine F. Watkins
The Division of Drinking Water engaged in an extensive study and outreach process to determine how best to fund badly needed increases in capacity to implement the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Division determined that the best way to fund its programs is to impose an annual fee on retail water suppliers. The fee is up to $1.20 per equivalent residential connection or a minimum of $25, with the funds collected by the state treasurer and deposited in a new, restricted Drinking Water Capacity Account. The revenues, which the Division anticipates will be $1.6 million per year, may be used for compliance, planning, and technical assistance for public water systems.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
HB 95: Landscaping Requirements Prohibition
Rep. Raymond P. Ward
HB 121: Water Conservation Modifications
Rep. Robert M. Spendlove
In Utah, “turf” is the newest four-letter word. Two bills seek to save water by prohibiting local governments from requiring lawns. House Bill 95, “Landscaping Requirement Prohibition” prohibits municipalities and counties from requiring the planting and maintaining of lawn or turf through land use regulation. House b121, “Water Conservation Modifications,” goes even further and also prohibits condominiums, homeowner associations, and mobile home park owners from requiring lawns to be planted or maintained. Both bills would amend the enabling law for land use regulation, known as the “Land Use Development and Management Act” found in Title 10 Chapter 9a (municipalities) and Title 17 Chapter 27a (counties) of the Utah Code, to prohibit cities and counties from requiring lawns or turf to be planted or maintained through land use regulation.
Depending on your point of view, these bills are either long overdue recognitions that Utah is the second driest state and must conserve its most precious resource, or symbolic acts in a state where over 80% of water is used for agriculture. In either case, local governments will likely view the bills as yet another encroachment by the Utah Legislature on traditionally local areas of control. HB 121 goes a step further and takes away the same power from private associations and mobile home park owners. Neither bill prohibits property owners from choosing to plant and maintain lawns. Thus, xeriscaping will not make lawnmowers and sprinklers a relic of the past.
To read the full text of HB 95, click here.
To read the full text of HB 121, click here.
HB 115: Water Distribution Efficiency
Rep. Melissa G. Ballard
House Bill 115 focuses on water loss accounting. This is the third legislative session in which she is running the bill, though it has changed drastically from its first iteration. The most recent version requires the governing bodies of water distributors—defined as retail water suppliers with at least 500 connections and water conservancy districts—to adopt standards defining what constitutes an acceptable annual water loss. The water distributors must then prepare annual reports for their governing bodies detailing the amount of water lost within their systems. If the loss is greater than the standard adopted by the governing body, the governing body must implement one or more processes to address the loss. These processes include water loss audits, leak detection procedures, infrastructure assessment and replacement plans, and meter accuracy assessments. The Division of Water Resources must also post annual summaries of the water loss data which is currently being reported by water distributors to the Division of Water Rights.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
SB 31 – Water Rights Proofs on Small Amounts of Water
Sen. Scott Sandall & Rep. Joel Ferry
Senate Bill 31 grants the State Engineer the ability to, under certain circumstances, issue a certificate on a water right even when the proof does not conform to the underlying approved application. The State Engineer is able to issue these nonconforming water certificates only when it meets all of the following conditions: it does not impair the existing right, the actual point of diversion represented in the proof is located within 660 feet of the point of diversion described, the point of diversion is located on the same parcel, the place of use represented in the proof is located in a quarter-quarter section or lot that is adjacent to the place of use in the underlying approved application, and the purpose of use is represented in the proof is adjusted without exceed the amount of water.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
SB 73 – Flow Rates or Quantity for Plumbing Fixtures
Sen. Jani Iwamoto
Senate Bill 73 would amend modify the residential plumbing code to require water efficient water fixtures for new construction. Specifically, it would set the flow rates for lavatory faucets at 1.5 gpm at 60 psi, shower heads at 2 gpm at 80 psi, and water closets at 1.28 per flushing cycle. Urinals would also be required to comply with a requirement of 0.5 gallon per flushing cycle.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
SB 89: Water Amendments
Sen. Jani Iwamoto
Senate Bill 89 amends Section 73-10-32 of Utah Code which addresses the adoption of water conservation plans by retail water suppliers with at least 500 connections and water conservancy districts (which are both defined as “water providers” in the bill). The substantive changes made in the bill include a requirement that the Division of Water Resources adopt, by rule, regional water conservation goals that are developed by the division and reevaluated every ten years. Water providers must adopt conservation goals in their water conservation plans that are at least as stringent as the regional goals, or else provide a reasonable justification for why the water providers’ goals cannot meet the regional goals. Retail water suppliers must also include their rate structures in their water conservation plans. The plans must be posted on the water providers’ websites.
To read the full text of the bill, click here.
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