Utah Waterways touts statewide ‘Slow the Flow’ expansion, new K–12 curriculum and partnerships
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Summary
Utah Waterways officials told the appropriations subcommittee they have expanded the Slow the Flow water-conservation campaign statewide, doubled its budget through partner contributions, rolled out a K–12 water curriculum finalized June 2025, and are piloting visible yard conversions that cut outdoor water use roughly 75%.
Tage Flint, executive director of Utah Waterways, told the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee that the agency established by the Legislature in 2023 has rapidly scaled a statewide water-conservation effort. Speaking with operations officer Jill Flygar, Flint said Utah Waterways now runs the Slow the Flow campaign statewide and has expanded public messaging across social media, electronic media and billboards.
Flint said the agency has used partnerships — including donations from water agencies and corporate partners — to roughly double the campaign budget and support outreach statewide. He highlighted demonstration yard conversions, including a project in Mill Creek that he said reduced outdoor water use for that property by about 75% while improving aesthetics.
Flygar described a K–12 water curriculum the agency helped develop with the State Board of Education and teachers across grade levels. She said the curriculum, finalized in June 2025, covers the water cycle, regional watersheds, infrastructure, and the Great Salt Lake, and that Utah Waterways is moving to professional-development workshops and classroom kits to support teachers implementing the lessons.
Flint also described the H2O Collective, a partnership with the League of Cities and Towns that provides toolkits, ordinance templates for low-water landscaping, and model tiered-rate language to help municipalities improve outdoor-water use. He said Utah Waterways seeks to “deconflict” and unify conservation messaging across local programs.
Committee members asked how funds were spent; Flint said most professional-services dollars in the budget covered media buys (digital, social and billboard) and payments to creative consultants. Several lawmakers praised the outreach and underscored the need to focus on outdoor irrigation, which Flint said is the largest driver of municipal depletions to the Great Salt Lake basin.
The presentation closed with brief committee discussion about pairing water-efficient landscaping with fire-resistant gardening standards and continuing partnerships with Habitat for Humanity to lower homeowner implementation costs. Utah Waterways concluded without a formal vote; the committee moved on to the next presentations.