SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah lawmaker is proposing new legislation aimed at getting more water into the Great Salt Lake.
"We could have thousands of acre feet out there in a few weeks if we really wanted to. It’s not that difficult to solve from a technical perspective. It’s difficult to solve from a political perspective," Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, said in a recent interview with FOX 13 News.
Sen. Blouin has opened a bill that he said will be "omnibus" legislation designed to prop up the Great Salt Lake. While the exact legislation is still being crafted, the senator said he is looking at reservoir releases. Currently, local water districts and the state have kept reservoir levels high to ensure adequate supplies in drought. But Sen. Blouin questioned if they should be kept as high as they are.
"They’re looking pretty good and the lake is not. That’s not to say that we need to ship all the water down the stream, we need to have a balance there," he said.
Another aspect of the bill he is considering would involve agriculture and whether they should be required to either reduce use or switch to more water-saving technologies.
"I think this is probably up front going to look at more regulations. That’s a dirty word in Utah, but this is literally the health of millions of people here," Sen. Blouin said.
Agriculture is Utah's top water user. Alarmed by the decline of the Great Salt Lake, the Utah legislature has passed dozens of bills and spent more than $1 billion aimed at water conservation. Agriculture producers statewide are being offered incentives to switch to water-saving technologies. The program has shown signs of success, but it is still being evaluated how much water savings (and water to the lake) it has created.
Matt Hargreaves with the Utah Farm Bureau said he believes such programs are proving successful, even if it isn't being as rapidly adopted as many would like.
"It’s great to have a partner in the state of Utah that recognizes the importance of agriculture and says let’s put money together, let’s work with this and see things that can make it efficient," he said. "But it’s also going to take some time."
Reacting to a recent study by Utah State University on farmers and their feelings about the Great Salt Lake, Hargreaves said agriculture producers do want to help the lake.
"It’s true, agriculture’s going to have a larger impact than maybe just an individual homeowner. When everyone works together on that, when we all take little steps? That adds up," he said.
READ: Farmers want to help the Great Salt Lake, but feel like ‘scapegoats’ for a more complex problem
Recently, House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said he favored a "pause" on water legislation to evaluate what is working and what isn't. The Speaker has insisted he remains committed to saving the Great Salt Lake. Sen. Blouin acknowledged difficult odds of passage with what he's envisioning as a Democratic lawmaker in a Republican supermajority legislature. But he argued his constituents want more to be done.
"I'm really trying to throw in a lot of big proposals probably that, frankly, are not going to be supported by a lot of people I think, in the legislature. But I think the population, the folks I represent, want to see it happen," he said.
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This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake—and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
