Lawmakers turn to Utah Lake to help rescue Great Salt Lake. Will dredging be part of the solution?

February 5, 2024 by Nicole Masson
State

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The Salt Lake Tribune, by Leia Larson Link

Lawmakers turn to Utah Lake to help rescue Great Salt Lake. Will dredging be part of the solution?

Lawmakers are looking to Utah Lake to help refill the Great Salt Lake, but they might be dredging up a controversial idea to do it.

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, announced he opened a bill file Tuesday that will provide around $2 million to research whether Utah Lake, the state’s largest natural freshwater lake, can also save the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere. The two are connected via the Jordan River.

“The whole idea here is Utah Lake is one of the primary contributors to the water supply of the Great Salt Lake,” Bramble said during media availability on day 15 of the general session. “How can we capitalize?”

The bill has not been publicly released. Neither Bramble nor Senate leadership shared much detail about the plan, only noting that the study will be “scientifically based” and that former Gov. Gary Herbert “was the instigator of the idea.”

“We want it to be a defensible study,” Bramble said, “that’s not biased based on special interest objectives.”

The lawmaker added he has discussed the plan with scientists from Brigham Young University and relied “heavily” on Utah Valley University’s Herbert Institute, a policy think tank named for the former governor.

“Former Gov. Herbert is involved in it,” Senate President Stuart Adams repeated.

Reached by phone, Herbert said he has contemplated solutions for Utah Lake since he first entered politics. As a Utah County commissioner in the 1990s, he was involved in a study with Clyde Nayor, the former county engineer, that explored building a causeway across the lake to meet traffic demands for a growing population on the west shore.

“Clyde was the visionary on that,” Herbert said, although he acknowledged the causeway never moved beyond concept. “That’s been the history of Utah Lake. They talk about it, study it and it never happens.”

Decades later, the Great Salt Lake’s dropping elevation has pushed it to the brink of collapse, compelling lawmakers to take action. And Herbert said Utah Lake might be part of the solution.

“Can we get water from Utah Lake to Great Salt Lake to preserve it?” Herbert said. “Maybe we could reduce the surface area of Utah Lake and minimize so much evaporation.”

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