SALT LAKE CITY — Troy Henrie ranches near Panguitch and he is seeing the impacts of drought.
"We just haven’t got any snow either in the valleys or in the mountains," he told FOX 13 News on Wednesday. "We did get a couple of little storms in the last couple weeks that helped a little bit, but we’re way behind normal."
The drought impacts irrigation, herds of cattle, crops of hay and ultimately, people's groceries.
"We have the lowest cost food supply and we’d like to keep it that way. Everything’s gone up," Henrie said. "We’d like to keep our food affordable and plentiful."
Drought conditions in Utah have worsened. The latest reports show southwestern Utah is now in extreme drought and a significant part of the state is now in severe or moderate drought. Things aren't so bad in northern Utah, where snowpack is looking good and reservoirs are fuller. Predictions are for above-average temperatures and below-normal precipitation in the months to come, meaning it is possible that parts of Utah will slip into the worst drought category — exceptional drought.
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"This year was the tale of two winters," said Utah Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Joel Ferry, referencing the different conditions across the state. "Northern Utah's OK. Southern Utah's pretty rough."
A special group made up of some of the state's top water and weather experts met on Wednesday to discuss whether to ask Governor Spencer Cox to issue a drought declaration for the state. That would make resources, including money, available to people directly impacted by drought conditions.
"I really think we need a declaration if we can do it for like, Sanpete County south, including the Uintah Basin," said Redge Johnson, the director of Utah's Public Lands Policy Office.
Others involved in the meeting that FOX 13 News attended were in agreement that a drought declaration is necessary. They deliberated whether to make it statewide or target specific regions.
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But their plans to seek any declaration from the governor got halted up by a law the Utah State Legislature passed during the height of the COVID pandemic. At the time, Governor Gary Herbert was issuing emergency health orders that some in the legislature did not like. So they passed a law that restricted his orders to every 30 days. He responded by issuing new ones, every 30 days.
To extend a declaration now requires the Utah State Legislature to meet in a special session and vote to approve that. So the group opted to wait.
"Rather than issue an order and have to come back in 30 days and have it expire and potentially miss out when the drought’s getting worse, we’re going to wait," Ferry told FOX 13 News. "I think we have time. We have good reservoir water, snow melt’s happening right now. We’ll be able to see what the conditions on the ground are. We’re teeing it up to make that happen. Something will happen."
Ferry, who was serving in the Utah State Legislature when those laws were passed, said he supported the original law as a "check and a balance" between the executive and legislative branches of government. He also believed the legislature would support a drought declaration and extending one into the summer.
But he noted that droughts last longer than other emergencies like fires, floods and earthquakes. Ferry said he was open to asking the legislature to tweak the law to deal with the unique nature of droughts.
"We'll have to work with the legislature to see and look at proper emergency orders and what the intent is," he said.
