As the Great Salt Lake continues to decline rapidly, officials warned that Utahns will have to significantly increase water conservation.
"We simply need to use less water, but we know that's complicated," said Candice Hasenyager, the director of Utah's Division of Water Resources, adding:"There will be some painful steps that we need to take.""That’s the way this is going to happen. It’s going to be everyone doing their part and collectively, we’ll be able to address the lake," he said.
On Thursday, officials with the University of Utah and Utah State University jointly presented some dire projections for the future of the lake. Brian Steed, the director of USU's Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air, warned that the lake will continue to decline without intervention.
"Climate change is evident, growth is a real thing, we have unpredictability with future rain and other precipitation, so yeah we need to change things," she told FOX 13 News. The solution to the lake's problems is to get more water into it. The summit also explored some potential solutions ranging from increased"cloud seeding" to a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean. But overwhelmingly, conservation was viewed as the primary method to help the lake.
Some members of the Utah State Legislature were already planning additional conservation bills. Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, said he was drafting a bill to get rid of"non-functional turf" and increase incentives for homeowners to ditch lawns.
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