SALT LAKE CITY — Dozens of youth activists fanned out across the Utah State Capitol, texting and calling lawmakers.
They beckoned them outside the House and Senate chamber doors, cornered them in hallways and spoke with their elected leaders about pieces of legislation they wanted to see passed to support the Great Salt Lake.
"I want them to help restore the water," said Hanna Eubanks. "As well as help with the dust that’s coming up because if the water’s gone? It’s going to affect us all."
The teens are members of the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake. They took time off from school to come to the Utah State Capitol in the middle of the legislative session to lobby for bills and demand more be done to help the lake.
"The health of the Great Salt Lake directly affects my future in Utah as well as the lives of the people I care about, so I'm going to do everything I can to convince my legislators to get water to the lake," said Alex Rampton.
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Their pressure comes as House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, has put a "pause" on major water legislation to evaluate what's working and what isn't. The Great Salt Lake hit a record low in 2022, triggering alarm among the public and political leaders. The lake's decline, attributed to water diversion, drought and impacts from climate change, presents a significant threat to the state and its people. There's reduced snowpack (95% of Utah's drinking water comes from snowpack), toxic dust storms from the receding lake bed and threats to public health and wildlife.
Since the decline, lawmakers have passed dozens of water conservation bills and allocated more than $1 billion in spending. The lake's levels rose a bit thanks to back-to-back record-breaking winters, but has started dropping again.
The Speaker's pause doesn't mean bills touching on the Great Salt Lake aren't being run in the legislative session. Bills re-working how Utahns pay for water to force conservation, restrictions on turf and landscaping and funding requests for dust monitoring and incentives to get farmers to switch to water-saving technologies are advancing.
"We’re asking for $6 million which will help with dust mitigation, a huge thing," said Rep. Jill Koford, R-Ogden, one of the sponsors of a Great Salt Lake bill. "It will help with berm management. It will allow for some continued studies of the ecosystem and what’s happening in some of those wetlands that we’re concerned about."
The students, who are well-versed in the legislation, said there are many bills they want to ensure are passed.
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"Increasing funding for agricultural optimization to see what works and provide funding for farmers," said Monika Cimbis. "I think that’s really important because that’s where a lot of the water for Great Salt Lake is 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.
