Snow in Southwestern Utah brings hope to local water leaders

ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4/KDXU) - The snow many have been seeing on Southwestern Utah mountains is bringing hope to local water leaders.

Zachary Renstrom, the General Manager for the Washington County Water Conservancy District says the soil moisture content in Southern Utah is now average, which is good news after last year being the lowest ever recorded.

“We have this wonderful snowpack and the nice thing about this snowpack is not only is it deep, but it actually has a lot of water content,” he says.

Renstrom says the snow water equivalent, meaning how much water is in the snowpack, in Southwestern Utah is 208%.

“If we didn’t get any more snow for the rest of the year, then that number will slowly creep down, so for right now, our numbers are phenomenal, but that’s depending on us getting more snow coming or more moisture, would be critical,” he says.

Renstrom says if we don’t get any snow this winter, we could go back to a drought scenario like we saw last year.

“December has been phenomenal, one of the best December’s we’ve had in a really long time and so we just need a few more storms to keep those numbers up, leading into our spring runoff,” he says.

It’s also up to residents to conserve water.

“This year coming up it looks like we’ll have a good scenario, it looks like we’ll have good water in our reservoirs, it will be great for our local boaters, they will go out and there will be plenty of water, but looking in the long term we need our residents to think about water conservation because we know it’s just a matter of time before we see those numbers change and go into a drought scenario,” says Renstrom.

For Jordan Verdadeiro's full broadcast piece click here.