Company experts say dredging Utah Lake will be its salvation. Here’s why critics oppose the project
Real estate developers should not be in charge of Utah’s future.
The developers trying to pave Utah Lake are still at it, trying to dress up a real estate boondoggle as “lake restoration.” They are trying to claim that ecological health for the lake is their top priority. A restoration plan proposed by developers, not scientists, and shady funding give cause for concern. We are pleased to see that cities surrounding the lake aren’t buying it.
The American Fork City Council opposed HB232, a bill that would create the Utah Lake Authority, saying “Dredging the Lake is unnecessary, ecologically risky, highly expensive, and any islands that could result from such dredging will deface the Lake, harming its aesthetic and recreational values,” the resolution stated. It went on to implore the Legislature to “ensure restoration of the State’s natural beauty, rather than create a pathway for future dredging and development of the Lake.”
Experience with similar, smaller scale projects indicate developers and their consultants are wrong about environmental benefits of dredging the lake. The whole scheme would add a new city of 500,000 people to the Wasatch Front which only brings more air pollution, traffic congestion, asphalt, freeways, and water scarcity. We have reached, or already surpassed the limit of the population that can live on the Wasatch Front without eroding the quality of life for everyone. And with the climate crisis that is all the more true.
Please contact our legislators and tell them NO on HB 232, and YES on HB 240 (which would be a better way of managing the lake).