- Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday declared a statewide drought emergency, as 100% of the state faces severe drought conditions and low snowpack.
- On April 1, snowpack levels hit a record low since the 1930s. Without snowpack, which supplies 95% of Utah’s water, municipalities rely on reservoirs.
- The executive order unlocks emergency funding and coordination, while officials encourage residents to reduce outdoor water use.
Standing in front of Little Dell Reservoir just east of Salt Lake City on Thursday morning, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced an executive order declaring a statewide drought emergency.
“This declaration is about more than just paperwork,” he said. “It facilitates the use of emergency resources and raises awareness to ensure a unified, coordinated response.”
As of late May, 100% of the state of Utah is in severe drought.
Usually in early April, the state’s snowpack averages around 14 inches in snow water equivalent. On April 1 this year, it was just 2.7 inches, the record low since 1930.
Warm temperatures through this winter and spring prevented snow and sparked early runoff, compounding the issue. About 95% of the state’s drinking water comes from snowpack.
Reservoirs, which act as backup for dry and warm years, sit at 70% capacity, which is about average.
The executive order will unlock funding for the state where it’s needed and allow state leaders to work with the federal government on drought issues. Secondly, Cox said he hopes the order will encourage Utahns “to be more cautious” with their water use.
All water restrictions and enforcement will be made at the local level.
Cox thanks church for donation, conservation effort
In 2025, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began installing more than 3,000 smart controllers at its properties across the Intermountain West
The decision followed the church’s donation of 6.5 trillion gallons of water to the Great Salt Lake in 2023. The church had previously used the water for agriculture.
Cox referenced these water conservation efforts on Thursday morning.
“I also want to thank The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for implementing water-wise landscaping techniques and installing smart controllers across church properties in Utah, which are estimated to save 400 million gallons of water in the Great Salt Lake Basin,” he said.
He then referenced their water donations to the state’s largest lake and thanked leaders for “encourag(ing) members to be good stewards of natural resources to conserve water.”
“They are truly showing what institutional stewardship looks like,” he said.
Are data centers and farmers conserving water?
When asked how he would respond to Utahns opposed to water cuts on the grounds that farmers and data centers don’t conserve, Cox said farmers and industry consistently make bigger cuts than the average resident.
“Farmers are conserving,” Cox said. “I don’t know where this comes from, but farmers conserve more than anybody in this state. That’s where the biggest cutbacks will always be and always have been. I get pretty fired up about that one because it’s a lie and it’s wrong.”
Cox said his own farm in Fairview, in rural Sanpete Country, has already been cut to about half of normal production for 2026 because of the drought.
He then addressed the plans for a large-scale data center, which was approved by Box Elder County commissioners in early May.
“This data center is going to use less water than the current water use (in the area),” Cox said. “So this will actually return water to the lake. There are issues that people should be concerned about for use, but water is not one of them in this particular case.”
Outdoor water use
Tage Flint, the executive director of Utah Water Ways, spoke alongside Cox on Thursday morning.
“I’ve been in this business a long time and I’ve seen a lot of droughts,” Flint said, describing this year’s as one to be taken seriously. “But I’m also here to tell you that this is not our last drought. This is going to happen again and again and again.”
Through the state’s history, precipitation has fluctuated drastically. “We barely have a normal year in the state,” he said.
He encouraged Utahns to use less water outside, watering lawns. About two-thirds of Utah’s residential water is used outside.
“We’re here to encourage our residents to do something different with their landscapes and to use this drought as the time to start hardwiring our landscapes” to be drought resistant, he said.
Cox addressed the same point.
“I want us to take a lesson from our friends in Washington County. St. George has done a great job of cutting back on the amount of water used for lawns in the state. We need to be doing that all across the state,” he said.
In St. George, local officials have restricted grass in new developments and paid residents to replace lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping.