SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Great Salt Lake is now below 30% of its natural volume, and a billboard along the Wasatch Front is back to remind Utahns just how much the lake has declined.
The Great Salt Lake Tracker, launched by Grow the Flow in 2025, is back on Utah roadways. When the billboard first went up last year, it showed the lake at 37.5% of its natural volume.
Now, that number has dropped to 29.7%.
WATCH | Great Salt Lake tracker returns as the lake falls below 30% full
“Public visibility and transparency, I think, is one of the first steps in solving this problem,” said Samantha Hawkins, communications director for Grow the Flow.
Grow the Flow says the lake’s decline is more serious than many Utahns realize, with concerns ranging from the health of the lake’s ecosystem to dust, skiing and the state’s economy.
Hawkins says the upcoming 2027 legislative session could be a critical one for the lake’s future.
“This 2027 legislative session is going to determine its outcome for years to come,” Hawkins said. “We really need public will to prioritize the lake. We need political will to prioritize the lake, and that's what we're hoping to do with this billboard tracker.”
More water needed
Grow the Flow says the Great Salt Lake needs about 1 million additional acre-feet of water per year to have a 70% chance of reaching a healthy range by 2054 — about 20 years beyond Gov. Spencer Cox’s 2034 goal.
Hawkins says that means significant conservation will also be needed throughout the Great Salt Lake Basin.
“We actually need to cut water consumption by about 40% in the Great Salt Lake Basin,” she said.
Grow the Flow says conservation will need to come from agriculture, landscaping and individual Utahns.
The organization also hopes the billboard will create a sense of urgency among drivers who see the number each day.
“Makes me feel a sense of urgency, and I really hope that most Utahns that see that sign will feel that same sense of urgency and know that, you know, the time is, the clock is ticking,” Hawkins said.
The tracker will rotate through billboard locations along I-15 and I-215 from Lehi to North Salt Lake, updating as lake conditions change.
Grow the Flow says its goal is to build public support for efforts to get more water into the Great Salt Lake.