SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of people braved frigid temperatures on Saturday to call on their elected lawmakers to do more to save the Great Salt Lake.
"The Great Salt Lake is still an urgent crisis and should be the priority of the legislature," said Chandler Rosenberg with the group Stewardship Utah.
The Utah Highway Patrol estimated the crowd outside the Capitol at more than 500. People waved signs and wore brine shrimp and bird costumes. A series of giant pelican puppets moved around the Capitol steps.
"Mike Schultz, you're out of pocket! Put the lake back on the docket!" some chanted in protest of the House Speaker's comments to FOX 13 News last year where he announced a "pause" on major water legislation. In a recent interview, he defended his stance.
"I think it’s important we take a pause, press pause, let’s go back and review everything we’ve done and make sure that it’s working they were intended to and that we have the right policy on the books," Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, said.
Lawmakers have passed dozens of water bills and spent more than $1 billion on conservation measures since the Great Salt Lake dropped to a historic low in 2022, impacted by water diversion, drought and climate change. Speaker Schultz called the effort "one of the biggest successes of the legislature of the last several years."
The lake, which helps feed Utah's snowpack (and by extension drinking water supply), has yet to rebound to a healthy ecological level. Environmentalists and scientists have warned that a shrinking Great Salt Lake could lead to toxic dust storms, reduced snow and harms to wildlife and public health.
"We know how vital it is to our health, to our way of life here in this valley," said Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, who joined the demonstration on Saturday. "So I do think we need to do a lot more."
Lawmakers are still drafting water and conservation bills that will get hearings soon in the Utah State Legislature. But they may not have quite the same level of impact as previous years. Organizers of Saturday's rally called on the crowd to stay engaged on Utah's Capitol Hill and keep pressuring their elected leaders to make the Great Salt Lake a priority.
"While they have done some major things over the past few years and it does make sense to take stock of what's working, we just want to make sure they understand this is still a priority for Utahns," Rosenberg said. "This is going to be a long-term crisis so we need to keep the momentum and the movement going."
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.
