Kaysville Water Parade to soak onlookers, spread conservation message


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KAYSVILLE — Dave Adams and his crew of about a dozen are counting on this Fourth of July to be a soaker. It's also partly why he has a fire truck.

"It's actually Ogden city's old No. 2,” the Kaysville Water Parade organizer said. “There will be another tank behind this one, a couple more tanks.”

That’s about 8,000 gallons per tank, all headed straight for parade-goers.

The parade has been a Kaysville tradition for nearly 20 years. Adams took the reins about 10 years go from John McCleary, who brought the idea to Kaysville in 1997.

“It’s just one great big water fight,” McCleary said.

While it sounds like fun, especially when in hot weather, some people might wonder whether it’s a good idea, considering the state is suffering from drought. But McCleary said the city is using the parade to send a conservation message.

"Even in a drought year, you have to flush fire hydrants to make sure they're still working,” McCleary said. “The city has been responsible in making sure that that happens on that particular day.”

Beyond that, Adams said he hopes people will see that each family can save a lot of water.

“Just by cutting out one irrigation per week, you can literally cut down 20 (percent), 25 percent of your irrigation use,” said Jay Dee Gunnell, horticulturist at Utah State University Botanical Gardens.

Gunnell is heading up that part of the effort.

"The normal homeowner uses about 7,000 gallons in inside use, and over 30,000 in landscape use,” he said. And that's in just one month's time.


Even in a drought year, you have to flush fire hydrants to make sure they're still working. The city has been responsible in making sure that that happens on that particular day.

–John McCleary, former parade organizer


“People look at what we’re doing for the parade and think, ‘Wow, that is draining the tank,'" Gunnel said. "It’s really just a minor fraction of the amount that, if we cut back, one day we could all save.”

Volunteers will be handing out flyers asking homeowners to cut back one watering a week.

"Am I worried that people are going to think it's kind of hypocritical to talk about water conservation at a water fight? A little, but I think people have a lot more common sense than we give them credit for,” Gunnell said.

He said the water they're using to soak the crowd will not be wasted.

“The water used in the parade goes down the drainage system of the city and ends up in the ponds and our catch basin here at the botanical center,” Gunnell said.

Of course, how it's received will be up to the people. Right now, Adams and his team are more worried about something else.

"We're going to have to get (KSL meteorologist Kevin) Eubank to advertise that there's going to be a 100 percent chance of rain,” Adams said with a laugh.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. Saturday and will feature floats, bands, antique cars and everything a traditional parade offers. It will end with the water parade, where the fire trucks blast onlookers; those watching the parade fight back with their own water guns.

"The neatest thing is just watching the reaction of the public and seeing Kaysville get a good time out of it for that day,” Adams said.

For more information, go to kaysvillecity.com.

Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc

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