Utah Rivers Council

10/09/2026

10/09/2026

10/08/2026

Utah isn’t just failing to save the Great Salt Lake — the state is actively working to dry it up.

In September 2025, Governor Spencer Cox unveiled the Great Salt Lake 2034 charter and promised that Utah will not let the Great Salt Lake fail.

But words are not water. The GSL charter is full of flowery language, lip service and zero policy commitments. It’s designed to comfort the public and create a feeling of substance while cloaking the real harm happening behind the scenes. When you pull back this curtain draped over what his administration has actually been doing, you find that his promise is nothing more than propaganda to hide what is really happening.

The Governor’s charter fails to define what a “healthy” water level is, nor does it allocate real water volumes to raise levels. These aren’t oversights, they are part of a deliberate deception.

Since the charter, Governor Cox has hidden backroom data center deals and actively worked to dry up the lake by making it easier to divert more water upstream.

We can no longer politely wait for our elected officials to locate their spines.

That’s why we teamed up with Utah Youth Environmental Solutions, Sierra Club Utah, and a coalition of other environmental groups to create the People’s GSL 2034 Charter.

The People’s Charter calls on elected officials to make specific policy pledges, including opposing new water diversions that deplete Great Salt Lake water. If implemented, these solutions will permanently deliver more water to the lake because they are founded on science, not lip service.

Visit gsl2034.org to read the People’s Great Salt Lake Charter and sign the petition to tell Governor Cox and your legislators to match their promises with action and accountability.

10/01/2026

During this epic drought, Utah leaders claim they’re doing everything they can to eliminate water waste, so how many submissions could we have possibly received for our Wastewatchers contest?

The water year ended September 30, and this was one of the worst water years for Utah in modern history. Anemic snowpacks led to shrinking rivers and lakes which have drawn national attention. But many Utah leaders fail to acknowledge the devastating effects of climate change and the need to stop wasting water.

Considering all we lose as the Great Salt Lake disappears, it’s baffling that Utah is failing to lead the charge on the easy initiative of reducing water waste. Other Western states have worked for decades to reduce their water use, while Utah has only given lip service to water conservation.

To call attention to Utah’s failure to conserve water amidst this crisis, we launched our summer Wastewatchers photo and video Contest, which just closed. Utahns like you submitted over 70 different photos and videos documenting water waste in cities across the Wasatch Front.

And we just got done choosing our winning photos and videos, which you can see in this video.

Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you to everyone who submitted photos and video. And thank you to our community partners, Pale Blue, Pingora, and Orbit Irrigation for contributing awesome prizes to our prize pool.

You can help Utah save water by visiting save2forutah.org and signing our petition to increase Utah’s water conservation plan to a reasonable 2% per year.

09/24/2026

Do you want to keep living in Utah but you’re not sure how to help solve the Great Salt Lake toxic dust crisis?

We’re unveiling an exciting new program for everyone who wants to help address Utah’s failure to value water and regulate upstream water diversions on the Great Salt Lake. This failure is shrinking the lake and causing toxic dust storms, which is why so many Utahns are seriously considering whether they should move away.

Our new program is for courageous people who want to help lead the community to hold Utah accountable for a future in which the Great Salt Lake continues to exist.

Introducing the 4,200 Project Ambassador Program, a grassroots effort to initiate, develop, and support tomorrow’s brave conservation leaders dedicated to fighting for the Great Salt Lake and the 12 million migratory birds and 3 million people who depend on it.

To help restore the Great Salt Lake, 4,200 Project Ambassadors will participate in tailored trainings on successful activist and advocacy strategies, water policy, and community leadership. Each volunteer Ambassador will receive one-on-one mentorship to further their personal and professional goals. Ambassadors will then join a community of other advocates engaging in a range of fulfilling, front-line advocacy and grassroots organizing operations.

The movement to restore the Great Salt Lake is just getting started. Now’s the time for courageous people to step forward and lead. The rising power of this movement far exceeds the institutional obstacles we’re facing at the Great Salt Lake.

Visit utahrivers.org/4200-project-ambassador to join the brave few writing the Great Salt Lake’s next chapter.

09/21/2026

The movement to restore the Great Salt Lake is far from ready to back down — in fact, we're only getting started.

The Great Salt Lake is in desperate need of courageous community leaders willing to stand up to stop a future defined by toxic dust storms and a mass exodus of people from the Wasatch Front. History proves that a small group of dedicated people can accomplish transformational change, and we invite you to be a part of history with us.

The 4,200 Project Ambassadorship is a volunteer leadership program designed to diversify the leadership of advocates for the Great Salt Lake by providing tools and support to fight this battle. Ambassadors have the opportunity to participate in tailored trainings on Utah water policy, join a community of powerful advocates, receive one-on-one mentorship in environmental advocacy, engage in hands-on experience grassroots organizing, and be first in line for consideration for future employment opportunities.

09/17/2026

Utah’s culture of waste is blinding people to the true value of water.

For decades, Utahns have been so acclimated to water waste that many don’t even notice people watering sidewalks, streets, and parking lots. Our summer Wastewatcher Contest was created to raise awareness about this egregious water waste in America’s second driest state.

Utah leaders encourage water waste by keeping our water conservation programming anemic, and instead let water lobbyists convince them that costly exotic sources of water hundreds of miles away are the panacea to our water problems.

The water year ends on September 30 and it has been exceptionally bad, with Utah suffering from severe to extreme drought. But this is more than just a drought, this is the new normal. For 26 years, we’ve been living through the driest period in the American West for over 1,200 years. Climate change is shortening our winters, which is shrinking our snowpacks, where most of our water comes from in the Great Salt Lake and the Colorado River Basins.

Other communities take water conservation much more seriously by accepting the indisputable fact that climate change is drying out many parts of the globe. Despite thousands of examples of conservation success, Utah leaders insist on protecting policies that incentivize water waste. Utah stubbornly encourages water waste by collecting property taxes on homes, businesses, and vehicles to lower the price of water and pay water lobbyists to keep these taxes in place. These taxes are why Utah has America’s cheapest municipal water and is the country’s highest per capita municipal water user.

It’s not normal to water sidewalks and streets. It’s not normal to run sprinklers in rainstorms.

It’s not normal to ignore water waste during the Great Salt Lake crisis. So why do we?

Visit utahrivers.org to learn more.

09/10/2026

Are hopes and prayers for rain the best Utah leaders can offer the public in 2026?

Many in Utah are crossing their fingers for the Super El Nino for this next water year that starts on October 1.

El Ninos occur when water temperatures in the Eastern and Central Pacific increase, altering weather patterns in North America. There’s no guarantee El Nino will increase precipitation in Utah. Even if this year has a bigger snowpack, one good winter won’t reverse decades of climate change and overconsumption on the Colorado River or in the Great Salt Lake basin.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said he’s hopeful El Niño will deliver a heavy snowpack, but he has refused to implement meaningful conservation measures. Our leaders claim to care about saving the Great Salt Lake, but they settle for an anemic state water conservation plan which calls to reduce Utah’s municipal water use by a measly 0.5% every year for the next 50 years.

Some say the ultimate resolution to the Great Salt Lake crisis depends on increased precipitation, but this ignores everything we can and should be doing right now. They say that God helps those who help themselves, and Utah hasn’t even scratched the surface of what it could do to eliminate water waste.

We need leaders brave enough to implement real water conservation.

Visit utahrivers.org to learn how Utah could create a more resilient water system and adapt to the West’s climate change reality.

09/03/2026

Are YOU thinking about leaving Utah because of the disappearing Great Salt Lake?

For decades, Utah has neglected to regulate upstream water diversions, allowing the Great Salt Lake to shrivel up and exposing hundreds of square miles of toxic lakebed that contaminates the air we breathe.

For nearly two centuries, the lakebed has accumulated a wide range of pollutants carried in by tributary rivers. As the lake shrinks, these toxins become airborne during windstorms and expose Wasatch Front residents to an array of health consequences. The abject failure of our state leaders to address this massive public health crisis is bad enough that many people are planning to move out of Utah right now.

But not everyone can afford to leave. The young and the wealthy can relocate with relative ease, but older people and those in poverty are forced to stay behind and breathe air poisoned by toxic dust storms.

Historically redlined and low-income communities on Salt Lake City’s west side are already hit hardest by air pollution from nearby highways and refineries. A 2023 EPA assessment revealed that West side residents already face higher rates of asthma, lower life expectancies, and may face higher risks of cancer, a disgraceful inequity that toxic dust storms will only exacerbate.

This crisis is completely preventable, but our leaders have failed again and again to implement the common-sense solutions that would deliver water to the shrinking lake.

The tragic irony is that low-income households use much less water than wealthy households, yet they will be forced to pay inordinate amounts for this failure. Utah’s water policy failures could be solved by reducing diversions upstream of the Great Salt Lake, but this will only happen if Utahns find the courage to hold our leaders accountable for implementing these real solutions.

Now is not the time to leave. Now is the time to fight for our future. Visit greatsaltlakewaterkeeper.org to read Downwind, our coalition report on the Great Salt Lake dust crisis and the policies that can solve it.