Utah Lake Fantasy Island Land Giveaway Facing Last Legislative Hurdle

HB 272 passed the Senate Natural Resources Committee with a 5-2 vote and will soon face its final hurdle on the floor of the Senate.  Please call and email your Senators and ask them to VOTE NO on HB 272.

Sponsored by Rep. Mike McKell, the bill fantasizes about improving water quality in Utah Lake, but offers no explanation of how that would happen. The reality is the bill would be the first step in selling your public lands to private developers who want to create man-made islands and a new city in the middle of Utah Lake.
 
In Committee, Rep. McKell claimed the bill is not related to the Utah Lake island proposal, but his own statements contradicted this claim.  In testimony to the Committee, the URC pointed out that the original version of the bill made it clear the legislation is about Utah Lake islands and that this is not a bill promoting restoration – it is a giveaway of 10,000 to 16,000 acres of your public land.

Learn more about HB 272 in the Tribune Editorial: The dream of building an island on Utah Lake is a squishy reality – at best.

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Utah Rivers Council Executive Director, Zach Frankel and our awesome citizen lobbyists getting ready at the Capitol

Bad Bill Attacking Government Management of Fisheries Dies Spectacularly

The Utah Rivers Council staff have been working on many water-related bills in the 2018 legislative session and we wanted to share one of our victories with you as we approach the end of another challenging session.
 
URC helped kill a bill that would have given fish farms equal say as wildlife officials over the management of Utah’s amazing fisheries.  HB 329, sponsored by Rep. Marc Roberts, was presented in the House Natural Resources Committee and faced fierce opposition.
 
So many people lined up to speak against the bill that at one time the Committee Chair asked if anyone was there to speak for the bill.  Only two people did.  In a rare showing of consensus-disgust for the legislation, no member of the Committee would make a motion on the bill, effectively killing it for the 2018 session. 

We’d like to thank everyone who spoke in Committee and worked behind the scenes to kill this awful bill.