Issue: Environment - Clean Water and Public Spaces Date: May 7, 2004 Author: Ian K. Scharine ******************** During the past year, federal and state institutions have come under fire for reducing or eliminating laws and bills to protect the environment from corporate and industrial pollution. In Utah, local issues offer unique challenges for our communities. As the Salt Lake Valley’s population continues to grow, recreational space and watershed protection becomes increasingly important to present and future citizens. Clean drinking water has moved to the forefront of concerns for metropolitan communities, and the usage and availability of this resource has to be monitored carefully. Along the Wasatch Front many communities have adopted strict policies for summertime water limits for lawns and activities that are not vital uses of water. However, seeing to it that these restrictions are adhered to by everyone is not always that easy or simple. Where watershed is to be protected and preserved, there is little argument against the sense of these regulations. Everyone should be held accountable for protecting water sources from contamination. All of us are part of the ecosystem and how we decide to use our environment affects everyone else. Utah is a state with countless natural wonders as it supports the largest number of national parks of any state. Recent agreements to bring and store nuclear waste here concern me greatly. I have never lived in Utah when this type of waste was allowed and I do not intend to let such an agreement to be made without fighting against it tooth and nail. We already house the world’s largest concentration of deadly biological weaponry, allowing the addition of nuclear waste storage gives the impression that we are not only the west’s, but also the world’s dumping ground.