2020 Utah Code
Title 73 - Water and Irrigation
Chapter 1 - General Provisions
Section 20 - Study of water loss accounting.

Affected by 63I-2-273 on 7/1/2021

• (1) As used in this section:
  • (a) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of agriculture and food.
  • (b) "Executive director" means the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources.
  • (c) "Utah Water Task Force" means a task force created by the Department of Natural Resources to review and make recommendations regarding water issues.

• (2)
  • (a) The executive director and the commissioner shall jointly form a working group from the water community with:
    • (i) expertise in the areas of:
      • (A) water utility service;
      • (B) water loss accounting and water loss control practices; or
      • (C) water infrastructure planning; or
    • (ii) other qualifying experience as considered appropriate by the executive director and commissioner.
  • (b) The executive director and commissioner shall jointly designate the working group chair from the members of the working group. The working group shall comply with Title 52, Chapter 4, Open and Public Meetings Act.

• (3) The working group shall investigate, study, and develop recommendations on how to implement standardized water loss accounting practices with reporting results and potentially incorporating the data into a water conservation plan.

• (4)
  • (a) The working group is to report the working group's findings and recommendations to the Utah Water Task Force and the Legislative Water Development Commission by October 1, 2020.
  • (b) The executive director and commissioner shall report the Utah Water Task Force's findings and recommendations to the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee at either the October or November 2020 interim committee meeting, as determined by the chairs of the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee.

• (5) The concepts that the working group and the executive director and commissioner shall consider when developing recommendations for the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee include:
  • (a) the promotion of improved understanding of water system losses, water delivery efficiency, and the conservation of water delivered by public retail water suppliers by the use of water loss accounting practices;
  • (b) the development of reliable information from consistent reporting requirements, and to recommend how the information may be used at state wholesale and retail levels;
  • (c) a recommendation of appropriate roles for the state wholesale and retail public water suppliers to encourage water delivery efficiency and water conservation from water loss accounting at each level;
  • (d) a recommendation of appropriate levels of funding for state wholesale and retail conservation measures and improved water delivery efficiency resulting from water loss accounting practices;
  • (e) a recommendation of potential changes to Section 73-10-32, to implement plans for water conservation from water loss accounting practices, including the authorization of rulemaking authority, if necessary, and water loss accounting reporting requirements, including a validity score on submitted data;
  • (f) a recommendation for the frequency of water loss accounting audits, as well as recommendation for the use of annual validated water use reports to the state engineer;
  • (g) a recommendation of which entities should be required to submit water loss accounting audits based on size, region, or both size and region;
  • (h) a potential recommendation of the appropriate role for a state technical advisory committee and whether this state technical advisory committee should have counterparts at the wholesale and retail levels; and
  • (i) estimating the amount of water losses and associated revenue losses that can reasonably be recovered through water loss control activities.