SALT LAKE CITY — Months after saying he was committed to help save the Great Salt Lake, President Donald Trump has requested $1 billion in his newest budget to protect the lake in hopes it can once again flourish.
Governor Spencer Cox announced the "historic" request on social media Friday, saying the money would be used to "restore and protect one of America's most important environmental assets."
"We're going to fill the lake," wrote Cox.
Trump submitted his 2027 budget Friday, and said the $1 billion was needed to protect the lake, "which is a critical economic and ecological asset for the Nation. The lake is currently under threat and requires a comprehensive Federal program, led by DOI, to ensure its long-term sustainability and to support the robust economic and ecological contributions that the lake makes to Utah, the region, and the Nation."
The budget added that the Department of the Interior would work with its partners, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency, "to make investments to improve water flows into and within the lake, restore ecosystems, remove invasive species, and address toxins in the lakebed outside of any active environmental remediation sites."
In February, Trump said he was dedicated to helping the shrinking lake on social media, and then at a National Governors Association dinner attended by Cox.
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At the dinner, Trump shared a conversation he had with Utah's governor.
"[Cox] came in to see me today... He said, 'We're losing water rapidly, rapidly, and it's getting smaller, smaller, drier, drier.' You tell those people we're going to work on it really hard. We're going to save it. We're not gonna let that go," the president said. "That's what I call a real environmental problem."
At the time, the president didn't share what the government would do to back up his commitment.
In his social media post Friday, Cox said the federal money could be used to "accelerate water flows, restore ecosystems, tackle invasive species, and address toxic dust."
