OCR Text |
Show I f r - ' ; . . ; ' I- : ,. .- i . - r i r-i 1 " "- . " k- , . ;.. .- . - -f r , .; . This insignificant looking building near the Moab Golf Course houses intricate pumping equipment that draws Moab's summer water supply from deep beneath the surface of the ground and sends it on its way to storage tanks lower in the valley. Task far iWoefe City Text and Photos By Aleene Nielson It's July. The temperature is nearing 100 degrees. The already sun-baked desert around ar-ound Moab is getting even dryer. Soaked with perspiration, perspira-tion, wilting from the effort of working outside, you step into the house or office and casually draw a cool, clear glass of water from the tap or fountain. As the refreshing liquid soothes your parched throat your thoughts are on your next project, a cooling shower or bath, or a television show. That's about how most of us take our plentiful supply of water for granted except when demand draws the well below pump level. Demand has already caused a short period of water "famine" this summer sum-mer when the entire town was out of water for a few hours. Water rationing was in effect for four or five days in July (it wasn't even necessary to rigidly enforce this) while the wells were replenished. But the main thing to note is that thanks to foresight and planning, plan-ning, no one in Moab has had to suffer because of a water shortage. This in itself is amazing because if any spot in the United States could be classified as a desert it would be Moab. Not Always This Way The miracle of a plentiful water supply is appreciated more when we look back on the shortages encountered during the boom days of the 1950's when a deluge of people raised the population from about a thousand to more than 10,000 according to some estimates. The population has fluctuated greatly since those days, but 1 for comparison purposes we ' can look at records kept by ; Maxine Smith in the city water ' department. Maxine, who is ' also city treasurer, started a method of record keeping in 1 95fi when the noDulation was . about the same as it is today. The best guess given by Maxine and Mayor William D. McDougald is that our population popu-lation today is comparable to what it was then. In January of 1956, records show that a total of 609 connections for billing purposes pur-poses with a total consumption of 9,113,000 gallons compared to January 1975 when there were 1,300 connections and a consumption of 17,971,000 gallons. Of course January is a slow use month when compared to the summer months. For example, in June of 1956 we used only 16,780,000 gallons of water compared to 38,946,-000 38,946,-000 gallons in June of 1975. Only Part of Story Those astronomical figures are only part of the story. Water used by the city parks and the golf course isn't metered. Mayor McDougald estimates it takes over one half million gallons of water a day, or another 15 million gallons per month, for the golf course alone. Before continuing it should be pointed out that the golf course had first water rights to their well but signed them over to the city with certain conditions attached. Taken in that light we're . fortunate in more ways than one to have a golf course. The fact that we have all the water we need didn't just happen. It took planning, technical know how, and money to provide it. Maxine Smith credits the people of Moab with having the foresight fore-sight to approve a bond issue in 1962 that provided for approximately five miles of 18 inch pipe necessary to get water from the wells to town. According to Ellis Cook the cost of the water and sewer system we now have is more than $2,500,000 since the 1930's. Mr. Cook was auditing bookkeeping in the office this week. He is employed by the firm of Claus and Auger, CPA's, which is the auditing firm for the city. Accounting is handled under Uniform Accounting Ac-counting Procedures prescribed prescrib-ed by the Utah State Legislature. Legisla-ture. Besides Mrs. Smith in the Accounting Office there are only two other people employed employ-ed for accounting purposes. JoAnn Lish and Connie Shaffer Shaf-fer round out the crew. This is significant because even with more than twice as many accounts as there were in 1956, the department has the same number of employees. Use of modern business machines has helped keep costs down and efficiency up. According to City Councilman Council-man Harold Jacobs who is assigned to the Public Utilities Department which includes Streets, Water and Sewer, the water department has seven people available for working with any water problems that may arise. And problems do arise, according to Mr. Jacobs. To paraphrase what he said when interviewed, "What do you mean no water problems in Moab? That's what has caused most of my hair loss!" He mentioned pump breakdowns, lowered water tables and sand, among others. So the next time you water your lawn or garden, take a bath or get a drink of water be thankful for the fact most of us can take plenty of water for granted. Lots of people have had to plan, worry and work to keep us supplied. i l ' - ' xi ' 1 ' 1 " : V"' I . Handling of vastly increased bookkeeping in connection with under direction of Maxine Smith, right, water and sewer services in Moab City is done by this crew. |