By Heather May | The Salt Lake Tribune | Photo by Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune

The 2025 Utah Legislative session is over, and we can share what happened and what didn’t related to water and the Great Salt Lake.

Most bills that would encourage water conservation failed. Some money — a sliver of what was asked — was given to monitor dust coming off Great Salt Lake, to lease water for the lake and to protect wetlands. And lawmakers prioritized requests for a visitor center at Antelope Island and cloud seeding.

I attended a Great Salt Lake legislative update hosted by the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah law school recently, and speakers were disappointed that dust monitors weren’t fully funded.

Gov. Spencer Cox asked for $651,000 a year and lawmakers funded $150,000 a year. The full amount for dust control would have paid for additional dust monitors and a full time employee, to answer questions such as: how often is dust coming off the lake, does the dust post health hazards and to which communities? It also would have addressed dust issues related to the dry Sevier Lake in Delta.

Utah has underfunded dust monitors compared to other communities with dying lakes that have smaller populations, according to the Great Salt Lake Strike team report.

Read the full story at sltrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.