No two ways about it: The Great Salt Lake is shrinking. As the lake recedes, dust from the exposed lakebed creates urgent environmental, public health and economic risks for Utah, and regional precipitation decreases.
Saving the lake seems simple: just add water. Unfortunately, getting water to the lake isn’t simple. It requires, among other things, getting the state’s permission. Two bills recently passed by the Legislature during the 2026 session cut some bureaucratic red tape needed to get water to the lake.
To understand the value of these bills, consider the problem and put yourself in the muddy boots of a Utah farmer.
The Great Salt Lake Commissioner has stopped by your farm more than once. You’ve had careful conversations around the kitchen table about leasing some of your water to help the lake. Together, you’ve worked through the details and found ways to get water to the lake without sacrificing your bottom line or way of life.
After all this, you’re ready to lease some of your water to benefit the lake. To your surprise, you learn that by the time the state can approve the necessary changes to your water rights, the growing season will have ended. You’ve lost this year’s opportunity, and it’s too early to make a decision about next year. By the time you know more about next year’s snowpack, it will be too late again.
The farmer’s predicament illustrates an often overlooked point: The nuances of arcane water law, while technical and boring, play an undeniable role in our ability to save Great Salt Lake. Getting water to the lake often hinges not only on the government’s ability to find willing sellers but also on its ability to navigate Utah water law.
Transferring water in Utah takes time, and for good reason. The state doesn’t rubber-stamp requests to move water to the Great Salt Lake because the review both protects other water rights holders and ensures conserved water will actually reach the lake.
Those safeguards matter. But timing also matters.
Right now, the approval process can take six months or more. This timeline can swallow the entire growing season. Farmers need to decide whether to lease water months before irrigation begins — when they purchase seed and prepare fields. Asking them to wait longer leads producers to walk away from participating — even when they want to help.
The mechanics of water law directly shape our ability to save the Great Salt Lake. Despite public support and state and philanthropic funding dedicated to voluntary leasing, relatively few agricultural leases have successfully delivered water to the lake. Deals take time. The details matter. But let’s not unnecessarily delay progress.
Two bills sponsored by Rep. Jill Koford — House Bills 348 and 410 — offer a practical solution.
They streamline water transfer applications that benefit the Great Salt Lake, while preserving the core protections offered by Utah water law. A process that once took six months or more will now take less than three months. These changes will make saving the Great Salt Lake a little easier. The job is hard enough without unnecessary legal barriers getting in the way.
HB348 and 410 come at a perfect time. Last September, Gov. Cox and legislative leadership announced Utah’s commitment to save the Great Salt Lake by the Winter Olympics.
A key part of the governor’s plan relies on voluntary water leasing from the agricultural community, funded in part by $200 million in private philanthropy announced last fall and — if recent comments from President Trump translate into action — even more money from the federal government. Significantly, on the last day of the session, the Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 9, which asks specifically for the exact kind of federal help we need: “substantial and timely assistance” to fuel water leasing and purchases to stabilize and restore the Great Salt Lake.
We need money and legal changes to move water to the lake.
By modernizing the mechanics of water transfers, the changes proposed by Rep. Koford would strengthen the legal engine that delivers water to the Great Salt Lake. To be sure, reversing the lake’s decline will require sustained funding and additional policy reforms. But these recent legislative wins represent meaningful, pragmatic progress and increase our chances of rescuing the Great Salt Lake.