3 ms·

For Mormons, a perfect lawn is a godly act. The drought is catching up with them

12 points by Stratoscope 4y ago

Stratoscope 4y ago
At first glance, this may seem to criticize a particular religion. But it doesn't really, and it is an interesting story I learned a lot from. I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. There is no meter on the secondary water. You can use all you want, and only pay a flat rate per year.
- octoberfranklin 4y ago
  > I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. Lots of places have this, because what you're paying for is sewage treatment, not water. Water on your lawn goes into the storm drain and doesn't need to be treated (San Francisco is an outlier here). Putting a meter on your house's sewage outflow is not gonna fly. Imagine dealing with it getting jammed... Also people would be tempted to cheat by dumping their sewage "elsewhere", and you really don't want to incentivize that. In the Pacific Northwest water is basically free, but sewage treatment is insanely expensive. The soil has far too much clay for ground disposal of the treated wastewater, so it has to be treated up to a much higher standard appropriate for waterway discharge. This is slowly bankrupting many small towns.
themodelplumber 4y ago
The Great Salt Lake certainly seems to be at a crisis point. Going beyond lawn care, there's definitely a lot to say about the way heavy Mormon involvement in right-wing politics has negatively affected living conditions in Utah. This perspective was also, amusingly enough, taught to me directly as a student at BYU, so some portion of the church is very aware of it. But tbf it's not the policy-driving portion of the church, the part that believes that people should ignore woke godless environmentalist libs, and anyway God Will Sort It Out so keep drilling. It's more like the academic scapegoats who are hired, then end up teaching this evidentiary ecological stuff, then get chastised or fired, then the cycle repeats... (Far be it from me to claim that the Mormon church is the epitome of evil; rather I'm just sharing what I was taught, what I saw first hand, and what was related to me by my own friends & family.) There are also some interesting Salt Lake & Utah-related details, narratives & examples in this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZgkjXRlw8&t=1208s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZgkjXRlw8&t=1208s > They want to convince fellow Mormons that the desert is already beautiful and has a divinely created ecological wisdom all its own. I'd love to be more optimistic about this process...anyway good luck with that. Green grass is very sensitive cultural iconography in this area. The entire mountain west gets high just thinking about green lawns and hearing that tik-tik-tik sprinkler sound. See also _Napoleon Dynamite_ for countless property examples which are apparently supposed to re-landscape starting any day now, but are obvs going to run into the issue of who's paying for that. Sigh.
skellyclock 4y ago
A lawn is a place where neither life or death is allowed to happen

12 points by Stratoscope 4y ago

At first glance, this may seem to criticize a particular religion. But it doesn't really, and it is an interesting story I learned a lot from. I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. There is no meter on the secondary water. You can use all you want, and only pay a flat rate per year.

octoberfranklin 4y ago
> I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. Lots of places have this, because what you're paying for is sewage treatment, not water. Water on your lawn goes into the storm drain and doesn't need to be treated (San Francisco is an outlier here). Putting a meter on your house's sewage outflow is not gonna fly. Imagine dealing with it getting jammed... Also people would be tempted to cheat by dumping their sewage "elsewhere", and you really don't want to incentivize that. In the Pacific Northwest water is basically free, but sewage treatment is insanely expensive. The soil has far too much clay for ground disposal of the treated wastewater, so it has to be treated up to a much higher standard appropriate for waterway discharge. This is slowly bankrupting many small towns.

themodelplumber 4y ago

The Great Salt Lake certainly seems to be at a crisis point. Going beyond lawn care, there's definitely a lot to say about the way heavy Mormon involvement in right-wing politics has negatively affected living conditions in Utah. This perspective was also, amusingly enough, taught to me directly as a student at BYU, so some portion of the church is very aware of it. But tbf it's not the policy-driving portion of the church, the part that believes that people should ignore woke godless environmentalist libs, and anyway God Will Sort It Out so keep drilling. It's more like the academic scapegoats who are hired, then end up teaching this evidentiary ecological stuff, then get chastised or fired, then the cycle repeats... (Far be it from me to claim that the Mormon church is the epitome of evil; rather I'm just sharing what I was taught, what I saw first hand, and what was related to me by my own friends & family.) There are also some interesting Salt Lake & Utah-related details, narratives & examples in this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZgkjXRlw8&t=1208s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZgkjXRlw8&t=1208s > They want to convince fellow Mormons that the desert is already beautiful and has a divinely created ecological wisdom all its own. I'd love to be more optimistic about this process...anyway good luck with that. Green grass is very sensitive cultural iconography in this area. The entire mountain west gets high just thinking about green lawns and hearing that tik-tik-tik sprinkler sound. See also _Napoleon Dynamite_ for countless property examples which are apparently supposed to re-landscape starting any day now, but are obvs going to run into the issue of who's paying for that. Sigh.

skellyclock 4y ago

A lawn is a place where neither life or death is allowed to happen