Like many of her fellow activists, Autumn Featherstone says she is disappointed by the lack of public funding for Great Salt Lake conservation.
"Last September," she explains, "when Governor Cox announced the Great Salt Lake 2034 charter, a pledge to save the lake by 2034, I think we were all really excited that he was making that pledge and making that commitment, but then disappointed in the amount of state dollars put towards it.”
That’s why Featherstone and her peers are taking matters into their own hands. They teamed up with Democratic Senator Nate Blouin of Utah's District 13 to propose Senate Bill 250, which would match private donations with public funding for lake conservation.
During a press conference at the Capitol in early February, Blouin said funds from a different project would be redirected towards Great Salt Lake conservation.
"This bill does not raise taxes, said Blouin. "It does not create new spending. It simply says that existing water infrastructure dollars, about 200 million of them, should be prioritized for the most urgent water crisis in the state of Utah.”
Funds allocated by this bill would be taken from the Water Infrastructure Restricted Account, or WIRA, and used to purchase or lease water to replenish the lake. An added bonus of the bill, Featherstone says, is that it restricts the use of WIRA funds for projects activists argue would be detrimental to the lake’s future — projects like the Bear River development, a proposed plan to divert water from the river to supply growing communities along the Wasatch Front.
Featherstone says the Bear River development would divert 220,000-acre feet from the Bear River, which is Great Salt Lake's largest tributary, every year.
In the long run, Blouin says the environmental and health costs of a depleted Great Salt Lake would be far higher than the costs to fill the lake back up to a healthy level.
“Every expert tells us the same thing," Blouin said, "and our youth already understand it instinctively. Delay is the most expensive option. If we fail to act, Utahns will pay the price in health impacts, environmental damage, and economic loss. Utah has a choice. We can manage decline like we're doing, or we can lead with purpose, and this bill chooses leadership.”