SALT LAKE CITY — The state's Great Salt Lake Commissioner plans to ask local water districts to release some water stored up in reservoirs to send downstream into the lake.
Dr. Brian Steed said the reservoirs are fuller thanks to last year's winter.
"This year, we look like we’re going to have too much water in our reservoirs which means they will spill in meaningful ways," he told FOX 13 News on Monday.
With reservoirs already full, there will be more water to go down to the lake when snowpack melts in a few months. But local water districts, which control the reservoirs, will be the ones to pull that lever.
Dr. Steed briefed members of the Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee on Monday about plans to help save the lake. He is supporting efforts to also lease water from agriculture producers to send downstream. Dust mitigation from the Great Salt Lake's decline could cost $1.5 billion upfront and $15 million a year in maintenance, he told lawmakers.
But one lawmaker brought up the idea of "water augmentation," importing water.
"In the short term, if we harden our system through conservation we will be short-sighted completely because when we do hit drought, a really nasty drought, we don't have anywhere to pull from," Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, said. "Water augmentation, in the long term is going to be extremely important. In fact, to me it's going to be essential."
Sen. Sandall said they all want the Great Salt Lake to be healthy, but he added it may take thinking outside the state. Dr. Steed told the committee they are advocating for conservation because it's the most certain and guaranteed method to getting water into the Great Salt Lake. Long term? Augmentation could be considered, but it would be years down the road.
"We definitely can do conservation right now and save a lot of water," he said.
Over the weekend, more than 1,200 people rallied at the Utah State Capitol to demand more action to save the Great Salt Lake. Many of the speakers at Saturday's demonstration expressed frustration at Utah political leaders for not taking more concrete steps to ensure water gets to the lake itself.
This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake—and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
