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- The Church of Jesus Christ plans to install about 1,800 smart water controllers at meetinghouses in Utah and the West.
- Smart controllers adjust to weather conditions, potentially saving millions of gallons of water annually.
- The initiative is part of broader efforts to address water consumption amid drought conditions in the region.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it plans to add about 1,800 more smart controllers this year at meetinghouses in Utah and across the West as part of an ongoing plan to address water consumption in "drought-prone" areas across the world.
Each controller adjusts to weather conditions and can be managed by computers or mobile devices, making it easier for facility managers to change watering habits than previous systems, which will conserve more water, officials who handle church landscapes in West and meetinghouse facilities said on Monday.
The new controllers would help the church more than double the 1,300 smart controllers it has already installed at facilities across what church officials call the "pioneer corridor": Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. The church expects to have over 3,000 smart controllers installed by the end of this year.
"The smart controllers are able to adjust for the weather, so it ends up saving a lot of water that otherwise wouldn't be saved when you're doing manual adjustments on the controller," said Andrew Stringfellow, landscape manager for the church's Intermountain Facilities Services, in a statement.
David Wright, landscape architect of the church's Meetinghouse Facilities Department, added the switch can help reduce water consumption by 20% when "properly maintained and adjusted." He estimates that the church could save 500 million gallons of water in the first year of full implementation.
Latter-day Saint officials previously announced plans to cut back watering at meetinghouses and temples in 2022, as extreme drought conditions gripped Utah and most of the West. A handful of changes were implemented a year later at churches in Castle Dale, Clearfield, Ogden, Salt Lake City and St. George through a landscape redesign pilot program.
Temple Square's landscaping also underwent a makeover as part of its widespread changes. Church officials note that lawn space was reduced by 35% and the number of annual flowers and plants was cut by 30%, while the number of trees grew by 30%. More water-efficient plants were also planted than before.
Smart controllers are viewed as another step toward the effort to cut back on water consumption, along with implementing more drought-tolerant grass and plant species and installing other technology like flow sensors.
Monday's update comes as severe drought has crept back into the West, particularly in the Southwest this winter. Over a tenth of the West is now in severe and extreme drought, including southwest Utah, as well as chunks of Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report. Some severe drought also remains in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming from dry conditions last year.
"This is a topic, caring for the earth, that we have worked on for a long time. And so that's not new, but there's a new emphasis," added Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé, in a statement.
