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.
Glen Canyon Dam and Climate Change
On this episode, Joe talks about how Colorado River water leaders have buried their heads in the sand and created a crisis for the entire Colorado River Basin.
For decades, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin have been taking more water from the river and its tributaries than actually exists. Climate change has shortened our winters and diminished the size of our snowpack, so the Colorado River’s flows have declined 20% over the last 25 years compared to the 20th century.
Glen Canyon Dam has now become a liability to sound water management in the Colorado River Basin. Now is the time to retrofit the dam instead of just crossing our fingers and hoping for a big winter.
Despicable Behavior at the Utah Legislature
On this episode, Joe talks about a regressive tax that was proposed during the 2026 Utah Legislature to fund water infrastructure. Joe also unpacks the financial disinformation surrounding this tax and the way elected officials silenced public opposition.
Before the proposal was heard by a legislative committee, our organization distributed a handout which quoted former president Ronald Reagan, and we called on legislators to apply their fiscally conservative values to water taxation in Utah instead of allowing financial disinformation to win the day.
What happened during the committee hearing which came afterwards could only be called “despicable.”