Liquid Courage
Liquid Courage is a Utah Rivers Council video series that tackles complex — but important — water issues in Utah. Liquid Courage calls upon Utahns to bravely speak truth to power in the water sphere to save the Great Salt Lake, as illustrated by the series’ logo.
In each bite-sized episode, Joe Roberts, our Advocacy Marketing Manager, discusses Utah's water failures, opportunities for meaningful change, commonsense water policy solutions, and news about Utah's water future.
Episode topics include the ongoing collapse of the Great Salt Lake, Utah’s nation-leading water waste, and the crisis in the Colorado River basin.
Liquid Courage is available to stream on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Follow us on any of these platforms to watch the most recent episode.
Highlighted Episode
Greatest Hits
Utah’s Great Salt Lake Propaganda Strategy
On this episode, Joe explains Utah’s plan to employ propaganda and geometry to mislead the public about the future of the Great Salt Lake.
In 2022, the Great Salt Lake hit a record low water level of 4,189 feet above sea level after decades of decline. This triggered months of embarrassing media scrutiny of Utah’s failures, and state leaders have been striving to avoid a repeat of this criticism ever since. But since Utah has also refused to regulate upstream water waste, the Great Salt Lake has continued to decline.
To avoid hitting a new record low level that will garner more embarrassing media attention for Utah, the water lobbyists have devised a sneaky strategy.
The Governor’s Great Salt Lake Publicity Stunt
On this episode, Joe talks about Utah Governor Spencer Cox’s press conference where he claimed Utah is going to save the Great Salt Lake by the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
This Governor and previous administrations have refused to properly regulate upstream water diversions and water waste for decades. The result is the collapse of the Great Salt Lake, the largest remaining wetland ecosystem in the American West.
The lake is now just a few feet above its 2022 record low, and though Utahns have been pleading for accountability from state government, we continue to get nothing but empty promises and hollow policies.
No Plan to Save the Great SAlt Lake
On this episode, Joe explains why there are two different arms of the Great Salt Lake and how the state has failed to make a plan to save either of them.
The water levels of both arms have been plummeting for decades due to increasing upstream diversions, and when the lake fell to its record low in 2022, Utah began restricting flows from entering the North Arm.
In fact, some legislators now advocate for completely drying up the North Arm instead of reining in existing upstream water diversions.
This puts the North Arm in danger of disappearing since Utah doesn’t have a plan to reduce upstream diversions.