What’s on tap for Great Salt Lake in the 2025 Utah General Legislative Session
Jan 14, 2025, 1:56 PM
American avocets search for food on a sand bar at the Great Salt Lake, near Magna on September 24, 2024. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Great Salt Lake is once again expected to be a topic of discussion and action for Utah lawmakers in the 2025 Utah General Legislative Session, which starts next week.
Lawmakers have already passed a slew of new laws over the last several years to help the lake and increase water conservation.
Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said some of this session will just be clean-up work.
“It’s a tweak of a word here or it’s a modification of how we’re doing this or that,” Ferry said. “We’re probably not going to see massive legislation.”
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According to Ferry, one bill strengthens the work the state has already done with mineral companies that operate on the lake. Plus, lawmakers could do more with conservation and development in the Great Salt Lake Basin, according to Ferry.
He said a big focus for water managers now is figuring out new ways to not only encourage and incentivize people to conserve more water, but actually dedicate and make sure that water reaches the lake.
“2025 is going to be a year of delivering on years of work that’s been done,” Ferry said. “We’re going to start to see…the fruits of all those labors over the last four or five years.”
Today the water levels of Great Salt Lake are still about 5.5 feet below the healthy range.
While Utahns have made considerable strides to save water over the last few years, Ferry said on average people and businesses still need to cut their water use by another 10% to help the lake stabilize and grow gradually over the next decade or so.
“We all are in this together,” Ferry said. “[10% is] totally attainable [and] totally doable.”
