On December 18, the Utah Rivers Council submitted a coalition letter to the U.S Department of Interior asking that the Bureau of Reclamation eject the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline from its current permitting.

The Utah Rivers Council also launched a Change.org petition to ask Americans to join our coalition across the Colorado River Basin in calling upon the Bureau of Reclamation to eject the Lake Powell Pipeline from environmental permitting. The Provo Office of the Bureau initiated permitting in 2020, and the federal government needs to stop this folly once and for all. The multi-billion-dollar Lake Powell Pipeline is the largest new proposed water diversion in the Colorado River Basin and will impact millions of people across the region including inside of Utah.

Please join the Utah Rivers Council in calling for a sustainable and healthy Colorado River by signing our Change.org petition and sharing the link with your family, friends and community.

The Utah Rivers Council has joined with Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club to hold the state of Utah accountable for its maintain the basic health of the Great Salt Lake. Our coalition is represented by the excellent attorneys from Earthjustice.

Recognizing that Utah is going backwards in doing what is necessary to raise the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Rivers Council and partners are eager to use the judicial system to move forward in protecting the Lake for millions of Utahns and 10 million migratory birds. Some may be surprised to hear criticism of Utah since Lake levels have risen after spring runoff, but no substantive efforts have been taken to address the Lake crisis by the State of Utah.

A new bill was unveiled Wednesday that could help fund restoration of the Great Salt Lake by providing a funding source from existing tax collections over the next five years.  Rep. Joel Briscoe (D, Salt Lake) is sponsoring the Great Salt Lake Funding Modifications Bill, HB 286, which would redirect some $60 million in existing annual sales tax collections in Utah to a fund to restore the Great Salt Lake.  With Great Salt Lake water levels dropping to alarming levels, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and millions of Utahns agree it is important now more than ever to protect the Lake.  

The sales tax money being proposed for redirection to restore the Great Salt Lake are currently going to a construction fund which was started by the Utah Legislature in 2015. This fund, known as WIRA, or Water Infrastructure Restricted Account, has amassed a whopping $179 million dollars that haven’t been touched since the creation of the account. The purpose of the fund is to pay for the construction of the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Development.

The Utah Rivers Council and its non-profit partners released a new report on how archaic engineering inside Glen Canyon Dam is creating a serious water supply crisis for the entire Colorado River Basin.

The “Year of Water” was a carefully choreographed charade to fool the public into believing the Utah Legislature is doing everything they can to conserve water, so they can charge forward with proposed Bear River Development and the Lake Powell Pipeline, claiming they have done everything else they could first.