Utah public lands officials are in the early stages of a study exploring whether improving the health of Utah Lake can result in more water flowing through the Jordan River and into the Great Salt Lake.

The study is the result of SB270, which was sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and passed this legislative session. It funnels about $3 million to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands to complete a study by Nov. 1, 2025, identifying “conditions associated with Utah Lake that may affect the state’s ability to deliver water from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake.”

Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed said he followed the bill closely.

“There has been a lot of talk about Utah Lake,” said Steed, who previously served as the head of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. “We all know that there have been relatively aggressive plans proposed in the past to restore the lake or to otherwise make changes on the lake.”

Steed spoke about the bill Wednesday during a media briefing on the status of the Great Salt Lake, which currently sits at about 4,194 feet and is projected to rise at least another foot with the spring runoff.

Steed and other officials said the study will be “illustrative,” and could highlight important steps to improve the health of Utah Lake, which is plagued by toxic algae blooms and warming water temperatures. Whether Utah Lake can actually assist its salty neighbor to the north remains to be seen.

“I don’t know if there are big water savings that are possible, but I think that’s what the study is for,” Steed said.

Steed said the commissioner’s office wants to ensure it’s a “bonafide” study — and that Utah Lake should be evaluated on its own, independent of the Great Salt Lake.

Jamie Barnes, director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said the division is excited to get started on the study, but also warned against “depleting one resource for another resource.”

“We just need to be really careful in how this is done and see where we land,” she said.

The study was championed by former Gov. Gary Herbert, who told Utah News Dispatch in February that reducing evaporation could help convey as much as 90,000 acre-feet of water each year through the Jordan River, according to some engineering estimates.

“What if we ended up minimizing evaporation in Utah Lake? That water would normally become a gas or a vapor — rather than that, the water would stay liquid and end up going down the Jordan River,” Herbert said.

And while the study is simply exploring options at the state’s disposal, concerns remain that it could open the door to large-scale geoengineering projects that include building more dykes or dredging parts of Utah Lake.

Environmental groups have long sounded the alarm over grandiose plans to improve the health of Utah Lake. In the last several years, Lake Restoration Solutions almost commenced dredging Utah Lake to create some 18,000 acres of man-made islands in what would have been one of the largest environmental remediation and dredging projects in the world. The proposal faced steep opposition and fell apart last summer after the company behind it dissolved.

“There were concerns on those geoengineering projects in terms of how they would affect state obligations with regard to the public trust,” Steed said, referencing the legal doctrine that preserves certain natural and cultural resources — like navigable waterways, wildlife or archaeological remains — for public use.

“That’s something the attorney general’s office was quite concerned about with the previous iteration of some of those aggressive plans and that’s why I think we have to evaluate these on a case-by-case basis and see exactly what is possible and what is being proposed,” said Steed.

Barnes echoed Steed, telling reporters public trust was a key part of the discussion when the SB270 was being drafted.

The law directs the division to complete the study by Nov. 1, 2025. That’s what Barnes calls an “aggressive timeline,” clarifying that there’s a chance the division won’t be able to complete the study by then. The law and funding behind it takes effect May 1, but the division is already working on a request for proposal, or RFP, the early stages of a project announcement.

“I’m hoping that we can be done by that time, but this isn’t something that we can rush. We’ve got to do it right,” Barnes said.

The Great Salt Lake has three main sources of water: the Bear, Weber and Jordan rivers. The Jordan River begins at the north end of Utah Lake in Saratoga Springs, and winds through Salt Lake County before it empties into the Great Salt Lake in Farmington Bay. Some stretches of the river are considered impaired, which means they don’t meet the state’s water quality standards.

Utah News Dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of Utahns.

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