A public service announcement City of St. George
Come on in. The water's fine.
Where St. George water comes from, who looks after it, and what actually helps. No lecture, no guilt about your lawn. We are all drinking out of the same system, so we would rather just show you how it works.
“I solemnly swear to learn one true thing about where my water comes from.”
0 residents sworn in
Welcome, desert dweller
A few minutes. You will come out knowing more about St. George water than most people who grew up here. There is also a man sitting in a kiddie pool full of red dirt.
City Suit One
City Suit Two
Known associates
You've heard the rumor: someone's coming to shut off the water. We found them. Meet City Suit One and Two. They're harmless, they're fictional, and they lose in the end.
The document
This is the part nobody clicks, so we put it right up front and made it impossible to miss. It is the real regional water plan. Not a summary. The document.
Public record
Three of them, adopted in 2020, written by engineers and sitting in public view ever since. Nobody reads them. That is fine. They are here anyway, and they are the reason the answer to most of the questions on this page is boring.
The findings
Most people have never thought about this for more than four seconds, which is completely fair. So here is the whole thing in numbers, and most of them are a lot better than you would guess.
8,000
New connections, same water
Eight thousand more homes and businesses joined the system in seven years, and the city is putting through about the same amount of water it was before them. That is the plan working, quietly, for years.
40M
Gallons on a summer day
Delivered every hot day without anybody noticing. The system is built for this, and this is a normal Tuesday for it.
2055
Already planned for
Engineers modelled this town year by year to 2055, then sized the sources, tanks and pipes to match. The far end of that chart is further away than most mortgages.
2x
The size of city it is built for
The culinary system is planned to serve more than double the connections it serves today. Growth is not a surprise here. It is a line item.
3x
Growth in the irrigation system
The separate irrigation network is set to more than triple. Every year, more landscape watering comes off the drinking water supply entirely.
2
Separate water systems
One for drinking, one for irrigation. Your glass and the golf course are not pulling from the same pipe, and that is deliberate.
10
Years of projects already listed
The next decade of water work is identified, costed and scheduled. Not a wish list. A capital facilities plan with names and numbers on it.
60%
Of summer water goes outside
Which is genuinely good news. It means the easy wins are all out in the yard, and nobody needs to police your shower.
$3
Per square foot to retire your grass
The Washington County Water Conservancy District pays up to $3 a square foot to swap grass for water-efficient landscaping, plus up to $100 toward a smart sprinkler controller. Details at wcwcd.gov/incentives.
The golf courses, the parks, the cemeteries and a lot of the green you drive past are not drinking your tap water. St. George runs a second system just for irrigation, with its own sources, its own pipes, its own reuse facility and its own master plan.
The city is blunt about why it keeps expanding that system. In its own words, extending secondary irrigation service "will help reduce demands on culinary water sources." Watering grass is not supposed to compete with filling your glass, so it doesn't.
Source: Secondary Irrigation Master Plan, 2020
What people actually say
These are real things real people say in this town, and none of them are stupid. So here they are, out loud, with actual answers.
The city is going to shut it all off.
Nobody is coming for your splash pad, your lawn, or your kids' water balloons. The men in the suits are a bit. We hired them. They are the only people in this campaign who ever wanted to turn anything off.
So let's keep building golf courses and pools in a desert while we run out of water.
The courses, the parks and the cemeteries are not drinking your tap water. They are on the city's secondary irrigation system, which has its own sources, its own pipes and its own master plan. The city keeps extending it for exactly this reason, in its own words, to "reduce demands on culinary water sources."
Source: Secondary Irrigation Master Plan, 2020
We are the fastest growing place in the state. Where is it all coming from?
Fast growth is not news to anybody here, least of all the people who plan the water system. The city's own irrigation master plan projects population, housing and demand year by year out to 2055, and sizes sources, storage and pipes against it. You are welcome to check their arithmetic. The whole thing is downloadable further up this page.
Source: Secondary Irrigation Master Plan, Table ES-1
Your assignment
You already know about shorter showers. We are not going to insult you. Here are the things that genuinely move the needle, plus one that does not.
Check them all. Something happens. Probably.
That is the whole list. You now know more about municipal water than anyone else at your next barbecue. Go tell them about the four in the morning thing.
The useful one
This is the part of the page that does something. St. George is rolling out smart (AMI) meters that report your usage in near real time, so a leak shows up in days, not on next month's bill.
Get started
Already have a smart meter? Sign up for Eye on Water to see your usage and set leak alerts on your phone.
Sign up for Eye on WaterWant to know when your neighborhood gets one?
Read about the city's AMI metersQuestions? St. George Water Services: 435-627-4800
The dumb one
They taped off the fountain. They stood between children and a splash pad on a hot day. There should be consequences. Swear in below, and stand with the residents who refuse to let this go.
City Suit One
City Suit Two
The desert dweller oath
I solemnly swear to learn one true thing about where my water comes from, to fix the sprinkler head that sprays the sidewalk, and to show absolutely no mercy to the men in the suits.
One oath per person. We are counting. The City Suits are nervous.
In case you skipped it
Everything above, in a few minutes, with better music and considerably more red dirt. Send it to the uncle who is sure the taps are about to run dry.