Erin Lewis, Utah Public Radio

Editor’s note: This article was published by the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions-oriented journalism initiative that brings together news, education and media organizations to inform people about the Great Salt Lake’s plight – and what can be done to make a change before it’s too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.

Water conservation efforts have increased across the state in recent years. We visited a business, a farm and a water district that are all using strategies that save water and benefit the Great Salt Lake.

Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed told UPR that the Great Salt Lake is in much better shape now than it will be in 2022.

“We had two great water years and then we increased our focus on conservation,” Steed said. “Both resulted in more water coming into the lake, which is really great news.”

One company that is actively conserving water is Perennial Favorites in Ogden, a wholesale nursery that has been focusing more on native plants in recent years, according to founder and owner Preston Cox.

“We’re seeing a real trend right now toward using native plant species or water-efficient plant species and the like in the design,” Cox said.

The company also recently installed a new water recycling system for daily operations. It became apparent that there was excess water that could potentially be reused, so a concrete catch basin was installed to collect water running off the drains.

Preston Cox’s son Cort worked on implementing the new system.

“So when the water level is too high, it says turn on the pump,” said Cort Cox. “It sucks the water out of the catch basin, sends it through a filter system because we have debris, soil, leaves, whatever. So it filters that stuff out and then stores it in black catch basins.”

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is also making a big effort that is paying off for the Great Salt Lake. Deputy General Manager Jon Parry said they are diverting water from Willard Bay, which is finding its way to the Willard Spur and into the lake.

“Now, when we have good water years and we do flood control measures, we release water from this basin every year,” Parry said. “So last year we released about 150,000 acre-feet of water through this drainage structure here into the Great Salt Lake.”

Dumping water upstream has become common practice. North of the Great Salt Lake, farmers dump excess water from their farms into the Bear River.

Joel Ferry is the executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and a farmer in Box Elder County.

Ferry opened a floodgate wider, allowing more water to flow from his land into the Bear River. His farm is at the head of the Bear River, so excess water from his farm flows through the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and eventually into the Great Salt Lake. He said farmers in the area have implemented agricultural improvement measures on thousands of acres, including digging ditches and leveling fields.

“We make sure that irrigation is done efficiently. And what I have personally seen over the last decade, but particularly in the last few years as the government’s agricultural optimization program has been implemented, is that we have seen amazing, amazing results in terms of water conservation and increasing water delivery to these areas,” Ferry explained.

While Utah has suffered from increasing droughts in recent decades, the past two years have seen real relief in water supplies and increased efforts to conserve water have been made across the state.

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