Utahns Defeated Two Terrible Great Salt Lake Bills this Legislative Session
The Utah Legislature ran no shortage of terrible bills during the 2026 Legislative Session which ended last week. Two bills of particular concern for the Great Salt Lake were SB 198 and HB 501. These bills would have worked in tandem to further dry up the lake in a year we’re likely to see a new record low Great Salt Lake water level.
SB 198 proposed to create a new office inside state government that would manage and finance multi-billion-dollar water projects in Utah. This bill proposed to create a new agency like the Bureau of Reclamation to build major water projects inside the Utah Division of Water Resources. The effort was clearly designed to advance proposed Bear River Development, the proposed Green River Pipeline the Utah Water Agent is working to advance, and the Lake Powell Pipeline. Because of climate change and its shrinking of snowpacks and river flows in the American West, there is no surplus water available for these new water projects. In spite of that science, some Utah leaders are tilting their lances at the windmills of science by proposing to waste $10 billion on these unnecessary and destructive water projects.
Meanwhile, HB 501 would have generated massive cashflow for such projects by imposing a new income tax on all Utahns that would be paid in their water bills. Yes, that crazy idea is exactly what it sounds like: an income tax in your water bill. This bad idea was popular among some legislators and was passed in the House amidst a wide array of opposition from conservation organizations, public health groups, and low-income advocates. Clearly, some in the Utah Legislature would rather promote unnecessary new water development than implement the conservation measures that could restore the Great Salt Lake.
These two bills would have helped advance new diversions upstream of the Great Salt Lake and on the Colorado River’s tributaries. HB 501 and SB 198 fit together like two pieces of a puzzle and when viewed together reveal a future with immense taxpayer debt, a mostly dry Bear River, and an increasingly shrunken Great Salt Lake.
Seeing the disastrous way these two bills would coincide, the Great Salt Lake Waterkeeper of the Utah Rivers Council rallied the community in opposition to both bills. Many Utahns spoke out at committee hearings and wrote and called legislators nonstop to advocate against the inequitable taxation, unnecessary water development, and impacts to the Great Salt Lake these bills would have caused. Our collective opposition to these bills got both of them held until the legislative session ended last Friday. This is an important victory for everyone who wants the Great Salt Lake to rebound from the brink of its state-manufactured collapse, and it should inspire hope that community action can block the Utah Legislature’s terrible ideas.