Utah’s controversial action on Great Salt Lake
While that state is applauding itself for a special session bill examining solutions to Great Salt Lake’s water crisis, many experts are seeing the bill as a band aid to a bullet wound.
The new bill from legislators involves adjusting the berm separating the north and south arms of the lake. Raising the berm would allow water to move from the north arm to the south. The arms are separated by a railroad causeway that many locals are familiar with.
UPHE has been working on, and will soon be releasing a comprehensive report on the dust problem the shrinking Great Salt Lake has created. This report is a partnership with Utah Rivers Council, who has been working on solutions to the problem, and pointed out that the recent bill from the legislature, “does not set a target water level goal, does not allow for permanent instream flows, does not pursue ambitious water conservation goals, does not phase out property taxes that incentivize water waste, and does not eliminate secondary water flooding of ornamental grass, all of which would be additional helpful steps for restoring water levels.”
“It is supremely ironic that Congress just granted Northern Utah residents compensation for being nuclear radiation ‘downwinders,’ but now the Utah Legislature is permanently
creating the next generation of toxic Great Salt Lakebed dust downwinders,” UPHE’s Dr. Brian Moench said in a joint press release.
The legislature dismissed the criticism of groups working on this issue, saying it wasn’t helpful. The dismissal of criticism is frustrating, because we can see that we are running out of time. The legislature wasted the entire 2025 session wanting to see what the lake did after a round of “solutions” that failed. Moench dove into the legislature’s previous actions in a 2023 op-ed.
The answer is to reduce upstream diversions to get more water to the lake. With the amount of money the state has wasted between band aids, and funneling money into development in sensitive lake surrounding areas, we could have made real progress in raising the lake level by now. Instead, residents are facing the very real health consequences of increasing dust storms.
UPHE announced a lawsuit with other partners in September of 2023 to hold the state accountable and ensure more water reaches the lake. It is our opinion the state has a legal obligation to preserve the lake for the good of Utah residents. We’ve also filed suit against the Utah Inland Port Authority, who in our view, poses a huge threat to Great Salt Lake by developing on its wetlands and adjacent to the wetlands, and proposing massive water consuming industries, such as data centers.
UPHE/Utah Rivers Council Press Release on the new plan: