Water and the Great Salt Lake

This bill sets the yearly budget for the state's agriculture, environmental quality, and natural resources agencies, plus the Colorado River Authority of Utah, for fiscal year 2027, about $1.1 billion total.

The bill would require community drinking water systems to have an emergency response plan and to report security breaches to the Utah Cyber Center within two hours.

H.B. 60 would limit the State Water Engineer's review of water applications to water matters such as beneficial use, quantity, quality, and availability, leaving economic and air quality questions to other state agencies.

The bill would let a livestock operation move its water right between points of diversion within the same sub-basin, including for small ponds of two acre-feet or less, as long as it does not interfere with another person's water right.

The bill lets a court appoint a receiver to fix problems at a small water system that is violating drinking water rules, or merge that system into a better-run one.

H.B. 76 would require operators of large data centers, defined as facilities of about 10,000 square feet or more, to submit a water use report to the state water engineer between 180 and 360 days before construction begins.

The bill would create the Goshen Bay Waterfowl Management Area on state-owned land at the south end of Utah Lake, one of four such areas in Utah.

The bill exempts non-motorized inflatable vessels, such as paddle boards, from boater education and aquatic invasive species requirements.

The bill gives lower Colorado River basin water districts, including Washington County's, more time to develop water rights they have set aside, so Utah does not lose them to other states.

H.B. 247 would move the brine shrimp tax revenue out of the Species Protection account and into the Sovereign Lands account, where it could be used to lease water rights for the Great Salt Lake or fund projects that directly benefit brine shrimp.

H.B. 251 lets owners of livestock grazing homesteads file a water rights claim, called a diligence claim, for small ponds that catch rainfall and were in use before 1903, even if the land was surveyed later.

This bill would let water suppliers include a commitment of available water for uses on the Great Salt Lake in their water conservation plans.

H.B. 313 would require landscape contractors to take two of their six required continuing education hours every two years on water conservation and fire safety landscaping.

The bill creates a new "dedicated water" application that lets water be set aside for instream flows, sovereign lands, or Colorado River Basin uses, such as getting water to the Great Salt Lake, without separating it from the underlying water right.

This bill would create the Utah Forest Restoration Institute at Utah State University and tie it to the Watershed Restoration Initiative so the two coordinate forest and watershed priorities, long-term monitoring, and emergency funding after wildfires.

H.B. 410 would create a voluntary, temporary state-run program that lets agricultural water users lease their water rights, with leased water required to reach the Great Salt Lake.

H.B. 473 would move the Colorado River Authority from the governor's office to the Department of Natural Resources and transfer its funds with it.

This bill would require a state study of how a 2023 federal Supreme Court ruling on non-connected wetlands could change Utah's wetland policy, covering only four Wasatch Front counties.

The bill would allow outdoor recreation infrastructure grant money to be used to improve or restore bodies of water that algal blooms or other water quality problems have made unusable.

This resolution asks Congress and the President to join Utah in working to revitalize the Great Salt Lake.

This resolution approves transferring about 22,311 acres of disputed state land near the Great Salt Lake to the U.S.

This bill adds about $454.7 million in supplemental spending to the state's 2026 fiscal year budget for various state agencies, and reduces general fund and income tax fund spending by $25.8 million.

The bill would make geothermal resources belong to the surface owner on non-government land, unless the rights were expressly sold or reserved separately.

S.B. 46 adds definitions for terms such as active use, canopy, functional turf, and waterwise landscaping.

The bill expands an existing invasive weed removal program so it can operate along the full length of the Jordan River, not just in three cities, to reduce plant water use and increase flow to the Great Salt Lake.

The bill directs the state parks division to study whether a state park could be created at Gooseberry Narrows, an area in the mountains near Scofield Reservoir.

This bill would require the Legislature, rather than state environmental agencies, to approve any state rules that go beyond federal environmental standards.

S.B. 252 would require state facilities to use low-water-use turf when installing new turf or replacing turf in new landscaping projects.

This bill changes Utah city and county rules on incorporation, model homes, planning commissions, land use fees and conditional use permits, cash bond interest, and land use checklists.

H.B. 154 would direct the Department of Natural Resources' Division of Water Resources to study water losses in culinary and agricultural water systems and to recommend useful actions.

H.B. 157 lets Department of Natural Resources divisions without advisory boards make their own rules, and updates DNR law enforcement work periods to match other police agencies.

H.B. 328 would limit overhead spray irrigation, the sprinklers that spray over grass, on non-functional turf in new commercial, industrial, institutional, and multi-family construction.

H.B. 349 would set a checklist that a reservoir project must meet before it can qualify for state funding.

The bill lets a city or special district file notice with the county recorder to take over a canal company's prescriptive easement after that company files an abandonment.

The bill would require cities in the Great Salt Lake drainage that lack a water-efficient landscaping ordinance for new construction to adopt one.

This bill would require the State Water Engineer's Office to create a program and plan that helps counties, cities, and special water districts prepare 40-year water plans, including a simple template for small communities.

The bill would require cities and counties in the Great Salt Lake drainage basin to use detention basins, which drain stormwater over time, instead of retention basins, which hold water, where detention basins are available.

This bill, requested by the Farm Bureau, addresses agricultural water that is switched to municipal and industrial use without being accounted for.

The bill would clarify that a water share in an irrigation company is separate from a water right, and it would tie water shares to a specific piece of land.

This bill would require cities and other public water systems that want state money for water or wastewater projects to first meet a local funding threshold of 3% of median adjusted gross income, split as 1.5% for water and 1.5% for wastewater.

The bill would set up a system to study how groundwater is recharged in aquifers.

This bill would create a state office to help the state own, operate, and manage water projects, including upgrades to water systems.

This bill would remove the authorization for the Bear River Development, a planned water project.

The bill would require companies with very large electricity needs, over 100 megawatts, to post financial security such as bonds or letters of credit before connecting to the grid.