SALT LAKE CITY — House Speaker Mike Schultz hosted lawmakers for a water policy summit where he urged his colleagues to ensure efforts are taken to help the state deal with growth, protect the Great Salt Lake and ensure Utah gets its fair share of water from the Colorado River.
"Every part of this state has different needs, different water issues," Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, told FOX 13 News on Thursday. "Collaboratively, we can come together as a state and work to move the state ahead and make sure we have enough water not just for us, but our kids and grandkids in the future."
The Speaker has called for a "pause" on major water bills in the upcoming session of the Utah State Legislature. He said he believes major policy shifts have happened with bills and spending on water conservation and rewriting more than a century of water rights law.
"Any time you make a change, I think it’s really important that you take a pause, make sure they’re working, see what needs to be reformed and what needs to be changed. I think that’s where we’re currently at," he said Thursday.
THE GREAT SALT LAKE
The Great Salt Lake is doing better than it was just a couple of years ago when it dropped to its lowest level in recorded history as a result of water diversions, drought and climate change. Conservation is working and the lake is benefiting from back-to-back high water years. The lake's salinity is also doing better, the crowd at Thursday's event was told.
Speaker Schultz cautioned things were "not perfect" and there was still a ways to go when it came to saving the Great Salt Lake.
THE COLORADO RIVER
FOX 13 News got an update on multi-state agreements over shares of Colorado River water from the Utah's top negotiator. Gene Shawcroft, the Colorado River Commissioner for Utah, said that he and his counterparts from the other states along the river are meeting almost daily and making progress. Agreements governing the river that supplies water to 40 million people in seven states plus Mexico will expire at the end of 2026.
"We’re talking about the tough things. It’s extremely complicated," he said.
The Colorado River Authority of Utah said it is exploring whether to pay farmers along the river to fallow crops, but lower-basin states have also agreed to significant cuts.
"They’ve committed to one and a half million acre foot reduction, which would be significantly beneficial to the system," Shawcroft told FOX 13 News. "But again, they have their own issues they’re trying to sort through, as do we in Utah."
The state wants to ensure it still maintains a full allotment of water even as the river continues to see declines.
PROPERTY TAXES AND WATER
Following FOX 13 News reporting last week on a new government study on property taxes and water use, lawmakers are looking to revisit the issue. Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, the chair of the Senate Revenue & Taxation Committee, said he was reviewing the findings.
The senator, who has pushed reviewing Utah's current system that has property taxes covering a lot of water use in an effort to force conservation, said he's open to bringing it back.
"Having an improved tiered system in water so that there's an incentive financially to conserve, not just socially, right? Having those flexibilities might be an issue we discuss this year," Sen. McCay told FOX 13 News.
Both he and Speaker Schultz signaled support for the idea of scrutinizing whether nonprofit entities that are property tax exempt — like churches, schools and cities — ought to start being charged for water they use.
"Absolutely, I think they obviously all should," Speaker Schultz said Thursday. "It’s a fair question because some of their rates are being subsidized by the property taxpayers. That’s an area we can look to make sure they’re paying their fair share as well."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a major land owner in Utah that doesn't pay property taxes, has so far declined to comment on the study until it sees an actual bill in the legislature.
"I think everybody needs to be contributing to the water conservation process and in order to do that, everybody needs to be paying for water," Sen. McCay said.
GOLF COURSES
Sen. McCay has also opened a bill file for the upcoming legislative session dealing with golf course water use. A similar bill proposed earlier this year did not go anywhere. The senator says he thinks it's important to know how much water golf courses use.
"Better data on how we’re watering our golf courses, what things we can do to be more efficient and really how we can incentivize great water consumption and great water use practices," he said of his bill.
One criticism of Sen. McCay's prior legislation centered around whether that information would be made public. The senator told FOX 13 News he is still OK with them being able to share it privately for now.
INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS
During a presentation on Thursday morning about water infrastructure, Utah's Division of Water Resources estimated $60 billion in needs. House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said she wanted to ensure that gets addressed.
"I feel like we’re headed in the right direction," she told FOX 13 News about the summit. "But we still have a long way to go."
