Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from the Great Salt Lake Collaborative's weekly newsletter, Lake Effect from Feb. 14, 2025. To keep up-to-date on water news from around Utah with a focus on Great Salt Lake and the Colorado River, subscribe here for free.
Dear readers,
Utah House Speaker Mike Shultz wasn’t kidding that there would be a pause on major water legislation this year.
Very little water legislation is moving through the 45 day process. Still, we have an update what happened during Week 4 of the Utah Legislature:
This week, lawmakers on the Natural Resources Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriations committee prioritized what they’d like to fund.
Here’s what made their list:
- $16 million for the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office to lease enough water to raise the lake to 4,195 feet. Right now the lake stands at 4,192.8 feet.
- $651,000 to get more monitors to track dust from the Great Salt Lake and staff to analyze the data. As we’ve reported, the state can’t say how often dust comes off the lake, if it affects our health and which communities are being impacted.
- $750,000 for wetland restoration and management at the Great Salt Lake. A state official said it would help get rid of an invasive weed called phragmites at the Great Salt Lake, which suck up water from the lake.
- $420,000 to create a training and certification program to incentivize and accelerate waterwise landscaping plans.
Here’s what was left off the priority list:
- $6 million to enhance Great Salt Lake wetlands and suppress dust on the dry lakebed.
- $119,100 to start work on what’s being dubbed the Center for Utah Water Information to collect data across a variety of agencies and modernize data management.
Next steps: Lawmakers still have until the end of the session, March 7, to get their items approved.
As always you can find all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
— Heather May, Great Salt Lake Collaborative Director
