SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday that it is donating billions of gallons of water to the Great Salt Lake.
The church said the water is being released from Utah Lake into the GSL, and it will flow through the Jordan River into Farmington Bay and Gilbert Bay.
It will total 10,000 acre-feet, or 3.26 billion gallons of water. It's being leased by the church, as well as the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognizes we all have a role to play in caring for our natural environment here in Utah, including the Great Salt Lake,” Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, the first counselor in the church's Presiding Bishopric, said in the announcement. “This water lease is one of several projects underway that we hope reflects our commitment to wise stewardship.”
The church said it also released water from the Utah Lake into the Great Salt Lake last year, and as FOX 13 News previously reported, it also did so in 2023 with 20,000 acre-feet donated annually and perpetually.
WATCH: LDS Church donates water to Great Salt Lake
The church is also instituting water conservation changes across the region, which include more water-wise landscaping at its meetinghouses.
The church said this latest donation is also a partnership involving the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands — and it's part of a trust managed by the National Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy.
WATCH: LDS Church says it is instituting water-saving landscaping measures
