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Michelle Baker, iUTAH Project Director, calls on community leaders, elected officials and local businesses to make clean water a priority. Credit Donna Barry, USU

Michelle Baker, iUTAH Project Director and Principal Investigator, and a professor of biology at Utah State University, recently published an op-ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune. In it, she discusses iUTAH’s involvement with the national education effort called ‘Imagine a Day without Water.’ She starts by saying that "Recent headlines in newspapers across the Wasatch Front have featured expanded coverage of local harmful algal blooms (HABs) affecting the lives and livelihoods of Utah's residents. As communities brace for further challenges in light of climate change, population growth and aging infrastructure, people are beginning to ask questions about the complex nature of Utah's water system.

Our water and wastewater infrastructure lies underground, out of sight and out of mind. But this critical infrastructure works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year, to bring clean, safe water to us. It also takes away what flows down our drains and toilets so that the water can be treated before it is released back into the environment…”

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