A group of state and federal agencies met on Thursday to recommend Governor Spencer Cox make an emergency drought declaration for all of Utah.
The drought response committee, run under Utah’s Department of Natural Resources, includes numerous government entities like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey, Division of Water Resources and Division of Emergency Management. No one objected to the recommendation that the governor issue an emergency declaration.
In fact, the presentation on Thursday presented a bleak picture of the state’s water situation.
Ninety-five percent of our water does come from snowpack,” said Laura Haskell, the drought coordinator for Utah’s Division of Water Resources. “So having that cut back, we just aren’t getting that inflow to our reservoirs.”
Utah is facing record low snowpack, low stream inflows, reservoirs will be stressed, and temperatures will be above average.
Read more at Fox13now.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.