Utah Rivers Council

Utah municipalities involved in the program say interest has spiked since the extreme drought in 2020.

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams wants to ensure water for future generations through a new water council, but they would be exempt from public records requests.

Utah Rivers Council said the state “can’t rely on Mother Nature” to solve Utah’s looming water problems and is pushing policy to make it happen.

Organizations including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity allege that the streams and creeks that should be filling the lake are being diverted for new development and industry.

The proposed policies from Sen. Nate Blouin and Rep. Joel Briscoe are backed by water conservation advocacy groups.

Only 27% of the water used in Utah comes from the Colorado River, with the majority of the state’s water supply coming from other rivers that feed into the Great Salt Lake.

While some will have to make historic cuts, Utah leaders are still “fighting aggressively” for the state’s allocation of Colorado River water.

As water levels at Lake Powell continue to drop, the groups say important and old mechanisms on the dam will be useless.

The Great Salt Lake Recovery Act would put $10 million toward monitoring lake conditions and exploring solutions to dropping water levels.

The groups say the Iron County water district “fudged” population projections to help them promote a $260 million water project.

“Anything that has to do with water, we’ve been totally blocked out,” said Christopher Tabbee of the Ute Indian Tribe. “We’ve never been consulted on any decisions.”

Utah is in the midst of its worst drought in decades. State officials have focused on that to explain the water shortage the state is facing. But experts say there’s more to the story.