Utah’s governor hopes the investment will help the lake refill in time for the 2034 Olympics.
Farmington • Elected leaders, business executives and private philanthropists gathered Wednesday to announce a new pool of money and a message: Utah has not given up on saving the Great Salt Lake.
The private and nonprofit sectors have donated $200 million and signed a charter of “awareness and action” recognizing the importance of a thriving lake to the state’s well-being — for public health, ecological values and a robust economy.
The donors will work with the state to administer the funds, officials said.
“The Great Salt Lake is part of who we are,” said Gov. Spencer Cox at a news conference. “... It’s the namesake of our capital city. It’s part of our environment, it’s part of our culture, it’s part of the soul of Utah.”
The governor spoke at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center in Farmington Bay, from a lectern decorated with a sign reading “GSL 2034″ — the year Salt Lake City is slated to host the Winter Olympics. Both the charter and Cox noted the importance of the decade ahead, and the international audience that will gather near the lake’s receding shore.
“We think that gives us a marker for all of us ... as we work to make sure that we have healthy lake levels,” Cox said, “... so that the world can see our pioneering spirit.”
But the governor noted refilling the lake will require a long-term commitment.
“It’s going to take us a while to get out of this,” he said, “but we can do it working together.”
A report published by the Great Salt Lake Strike Team last year found it will take at least 700,000 additional acre-feet per year of water flowing to the lake to raise it to a minimum healthy elevation by the time the Winter Games arrive — if Utah experiences normal water years. If drought persists, the report said it will take nearly 1.3 million additional acre-feet annually.
The state’s political leaders noted milestones achieved to save the lake in recent years, including law changes that allow water to be leased orpermanently dedicated to the lake, investment in a water optimization program for agriculture and mandatory installation of outdoor water metersat most Utah homes.
“We’ve set aside political ideology differences,” said House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, “to focus on what’s best for the state of Utah and focus on what’s best for the Great Salt Lake.”
He pointed to around 280,000 acre-feet currently dedicated to the Great Salt Lake through leases and donations — a feat that wasn’t possible as recently as three years ago.
“We’re committed to save the lake,” said Senate President Stuart Adams. “We’re here united.”
The water currently dedicated to the lake — which Cox described as the equivalent of “280,000 football fields with one foot of water”— represents just a drop in the context of the lake’s needs.
“But all of these things take time, right?” said Grow the Flow Executive Director Ben Abbott in an interview after the news conference. “And you start out by building the train, and then it gets momentum on the tracks.”
He called the new initiative another “good step forward.”
Conservation nonprofit Ducks Unlimited pledged $100 million that will go toward conservation and preservation efforts. The other $100 million will come from Great Salt Lake Rising, a coalition of business groups led by Josh Romney, founder of the Romney Group and son of former U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney.
“The business community recognizes how big an issue this will be for their livelihood,” Romney told The Salt Lake Tribune.
With the Great Salt Lake’s decline grabbing headlines around the globe, Romney said he’s starting to hear concerns from investors.
“Our GDP as a state can really be hit,” he said. “So we’re hoping we get to a point where people don’t have to worry about it, and I think that’s coming soon.”
Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed said he would like to fund more water leases from the agriculture and business sectors. But he said significant investments are still needed for conservation in cities and homes within the Great Salt Lake’s watershed.
“We in Logan received a quarter-inch of rain two days ago,” Steed said in an interview. “[But] if you drove around, you’d see a lot of people still watering their lawns. There is no need for that, especially this time of year.”
In addition to refilling the Great Salt Lake, Cox has an ambitious goal to double Utah’s energy production in the next decade through his “Operation Gigawatt.”
The energy industry can be water intensive, as can the energy-guzzling data centers rapidly coming online across the West. But Cox scolded those he said were looking to the future with a “scarcity mentality.”
“It’s not just about tearing down and saying no to things,” the governor said. “That is no way to move a country forward, and it’s not a winning message.”
Building up Utah and the West’s energy capacity, he added, could be key to solving the region’s stark water problems in both the Great Basin and Colorado River watersheds. He envisions desalination plants along the Pacific Coast, powered by energy sources like nuclear, purifying seawater and freeing up more freshwater for interior states.
“If California is not using it, we can use these new technologies to solve our problems,” Cox said. “We don’t have to give up on our quality of life.”
