Brian Steed
What a difference one year can make! While 2022 was dominated by drought, 2023 saw the wettest winter on record, providing a temporary reprieve from the state’s water woes. As of October 2023, statewide reservoir levels remain 75% full—a remarkable place for the end of irrigation season and a huge improvement over the prior year when reservoir levels were hovering in the mid to low 40% range.
Even though major concerns remain on the Great Salt Lake, the south arm of the lake rose by 5.5 feet after runoff season. The north arm of the lake rose only about a foot. The difference between the levels on the two arms of the lake was largely due to intentional manipulation of the breach in the Union Pacific causeway to control salinity levels in the south arm. In November of last year, the state made the decision to raise a berm in the causeway breach to increase mixing of fresh water and saline water and reduce salinity in the south arm. Accordingly, salinity levels in the south arm dropped to healthier levels from highs that threatened the vitality of brine shrimp and brine fly populations in the fall of last year.
Hopefully, 2024 delivers another great winter. But even if it doesn’t, the state has continued ramping up water conservation programs to ensure that we have the water we need for ecological needs and human consumption into the future. In the remaining parts of this section, we detail approaches on how we are using, accounting, and planning for water for the future of the state.
