Utah Gov. Spencer Cox once again called on Utahns to call upon heaven for water in a post to social media on Monday.
Like he did in 2021, 2023 and 2025, the openly religious governor renewed his request for “faith communities across Utah” to come together in prayer for snow.
The state’s water supply is in trouble: Utah sits at 62% of average snowpack, with more than 90% of the state experiencing drought conditions, Cox pointed out.
In addition to results from legislative action, and personal conservation, Cox recognized that Utah’s water situation relies heavily on factors outside of Utahns’ control.
“I invite all Utahns to seek help from a higher power and do our part to conserve water,” Cox said in the statement.
The stakes are high.
Beyond the water needs of a rapidly growing state, ski resorts are experiencing one of their worst years in recent memory ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympic Games.
An hour before his call to prayer, Cox posted a bold promise: “When the world comes back to Utah for the 2034 Olympic Games, the Great Salt Lake will be full.”
“The lake is our heritage and our future. We will not let it fail,” the post said.
The dire state of the Great Salt Lake galvanized government officials, activists and national media attention when it reached record lows in 2021.
The lake levels got even worse in 2022 before a record-winter elevated the lake by several feet. But recent reports show the lake is on a crisis trajectory once again.
At the close of 2025, the surface of Great Salt Lake’s south arm fell to 4,191.1 feet — the third-lowest recorded elevation in more than 120 years.
Refilling the lake will be a herculean task.
State agencies estimate it will take 800,000 acre-feet of water, or 261 billion gallons — enough to fill nearly 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, as Deseret News previously reported.
Over the past five years, dozens of pieces of legislation have rewritten a century of water rights law, created water optimization programs and incentivized Utahns to save water, or sell water rights to the lake.
Water for the Great Salt Lake is the issue lawmakers have spent more time on than any other in recent years, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said on Monday.
And it has produced measurable results. The state’s agriculture water optimization program has saved 100,000 acre-feet of water, according to state Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton.
But there is only so much in the Legislature’s control. Evaporation depletion of the lake and winter snowfall are the largest factors contributing to lake levels, Sandall said on Monday.
Sandall: ‘We can do our part,’ but ‘heaven’s going to dictate’ precipitation
On Friday, Sandall reaffirmed that every piece of Great Salt Lake legislation is intended to get water directly to the lake.
“But beyond that, there’s a heavenly force that’s going to actually dictate how much water goes into that lake in huge volumes,” Sandall said.
“We can do our part and we will continue to do our part, but heaven’s going to dictate the amount of precipitation we get to work with.”
While Utah Democrats may differ in some of their proposals, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said they share the same sense of urgency as their Republican colleagues.
“The public health implications and wildlife … needs to be in the forefront of everything that we do and we say,” Escamilla said on Friday. “It will be a disaster in 10 years. We can’t wait longer.”
Agriculture has long been the largest water consumer in Utah, as Deseret News recently reported. But now, state researchers are finding that municipal and industrial water consumption are on the rise.
In an interview with the Deseret News/KSL editorial board prior to the start of the 2026 legislative session, state House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said lawmakers need the cooperation of Utah constituents more than ever.
“Conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation. That is what we’re going to have to do,” Schultz said. “Conservation is going to be a key component moving forward.”
