A $50 million ‘gift’ for the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake received a $50 million gift on Monday from the Bureau of Reclamation to redirect more water, update infrastructure and restore surrounding ecosystems.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton announced the investment in the Utah Capitol Gold Room as part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s funding for drought mitigation efforts throughout the West.

The award comes in response to an application filed by the state of Utah that included a request of $10 million for the direct acquisition of water for the Great Salt Lake in the form of leases and purchases of water rights.

The $50 million in federal funds will be made available to state government partners “to enhance ongoing agricultural and municipal conservation efforts in the Great Salt Lake Basin,” Touton said. “This investment will help slow the decline of the very valuable resource that is the Great Salt Lake.”

How will the $50 million be spent?

The Bureau of Reclamation’s grant of $50 million will be matched by a $50 million investment from the state, using previously appropriated funds, according to Utah Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Joel Ferry.

In addition to water acquisition, the $100 million in combined investments will be used to support the Great Salt Lake’s ecosystems by improving state-owned waterfowl management areas and updating water delivery systems, including some dams that are over a century old, Ferry said.

A federal investment of $50 million is the culmination of many meetings with the Bureau of Reclamation, Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed said. The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that oversees water management. It is best known for reservoir and hydroelectric dam projects in the West.

“This is a type of investment that we’ve so desperately needed,” Steed said. “While we’re no longer in crisis, we are a long ways from where we want to be on the Great Salt Lake in terms of those numbers, but this is the type of contribution that will really help get us to where we need to be on the Great Salt Lake.”

Steed thanked the Utah Legislature for its work over the last four years to make dozens of changes to state water law. Steed calculated there have been 64 major overhauls to state code relating to water management in recent years, which in some cases involved changing water laws that were hundreds of years old.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox hosted Touton’s visit, which included a trip to the Great Salt Lake, along with Ferry and Steed. Monday’s announcement marked “a very important day for Utah,” representing a “very generous gift on behalf of the people of this country, showing that they too care about the future of this lake,” Cox said.

How is the Great Salt Lake?

The Great Salt Lake’s rapid decline in the years leading up to 2022 spurred a wave of policy changes and led state leaders to make the case that the lake’s demise wasn’t just a Wasatch Front problem, or a regional problem, “it is a United State’s problem,” Cox said.

The lake is now trending toward healthy levels, according to Cox. “We do have a chance right now, just to catch our breath for a moment,” he said. While the lake previously shrunk to one-third of its optimal size, it could be on track to hit “healthy territory” by next spring if the state gets another good water year like the two before it, Cox said.

“Regardless of whether we have another great year, a mediocre year or terrible year, we’re in better shape than we’ve been in many years because of the state’s commitment and the federal government’s commitment and the local commitment to this to this natural resource,” Cox said.

The state’s proactive approach to saving the Great Salt Lake made it an ideal partner for the Inflation Reduction Act because it allows funding to make an immediate impact, Touton said.

The $900 billion Inflation Reduction Act — which the Biden administration has hailed as the “the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever” — allocated over $4.5 billion for water conservation projects. The Bureau of Reclamation has already announced more than $3.2 billion in projects funded by the legislation signed into law in 2022.

In May, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded Washington County $20.5 million in Inflation Reduction Act grant money to support the district’s $1 billion Regional Reuse System, which aims to expand water infrastructure in the county.

Washington County was again selected as a recipient of Bureau of Reclamation funds in November for the same project. The federal agency allocated more than $640,000 for new water treatment facilities and infrastructure.