Water Week Page 2April 30th, 2009
Who is Billy X? More quotes from Mayor Becker and Stephanie Duer regarding water conservation
by Jonny Glines
Some might call performance artist Billy X Curmano a "water enthusiast," others a "water nut!" Both are acceptable answers. He doesn't exactly look like a "Michael Phelps" swimmer, but believe it or not, Curmano swam the length of the Mississippi river, all in the name of water. The 2,367.4-mile swim was intended to "get people thinking about water," Curmano said at the press conference held at Brewvies cinema pub on 677 south, 200 west. After his swim stunt, Curmano wanted to do a performance that involved water deprivation. He went to Death Valley in California where he held a "water and juice fast" for 40 days.
To complete his performance "trilogy," Curmano traveled to the Arctic Circle entirely on public transportation with a vial of water from the Mississippi River. When he arrived at the Arctic shore he placed the Mississippi River water in a water harp and played music to the Arctic Sea.
KSL Reporter John Daily arrived at the press conference followed by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker. The room filled with over 30 people and it was quickly more apparent as to how important this issue really is.
For those that have traveled to other countries, we know that you cannot drink the water out of the tap. In this country, we take that for granted. We are very lucky in Salt Lake City because our water comes straight from the Wasatch Mountains. Not many communities are able to live so close to their water source. --SLC Mayor Ralph Becker.
Becker spoke of looking at the future of water in Utah. He was happy to announce that this is the third annual "water week" and remembers trying to get the week passed through the Utah legislature.
We're in the process of developing the first apprehensive sustainability ordinance in the country. It covers everything from transportation to energy use and also our resource usage. It has a major focus on water. --SLC Mayor Ralph Becker"
Although the Mayor did not give any details into the "sustainability ordinance", he explained the importance of having such a plan in order for people to have the ability to "capture water coming off of their own property," "plant gardens" and "xeriscape in the desert appropriately."
According to the Utah Division of Water Resources, the areas that are most subject to drought are the Bear River Basin, Weber River Basin and the West Colorado River Basin. But the water challenges that Utah faces is not only water conservation, but also water pollution.
It's a circle. There's no point saving water if the water is such that it is unusable. --Stephanie Duer, Water Conservation Coordinator
Duer says the three biggest challenges are wasteful water usage, population growth and climate change.
10 of the hottest years of the last century have occurred in the past 12 years. Some of the driest summers have happened in the past 10 years. We've seen later snow starts and earlier snow melts. Our best water reservoir is snow." Duer says the best things that Utahns can do are usually the simplest fixes such as not running sprinklers too long, turning off faucets when not in use and fixing leaks. --Stephanie Duer
