Subcommittee approves package of natural-resources budget and policy recommendations; asks Colorado River Authority for funding plan

The Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee approved a slate of recommendations and directed staff to draft the subcommittee’s base budget bill. The committee voted to ask the Colorado River Authority of Utah (CRAU) to return with a proposal for ongoing funding for the demand-management pilot and to develop more robust criteria for the program prior to the 2026 irrigation season. The committee also approved administrative and budget-related recommendations for multiple agencies, adopted line-item performance measures for fiscal 2027, and authorized legislative staff to include the approved changes in the subcommittee’s base budget bill.

Why it matters: the package affects state water negotiations, wildfire accounting and response, forest and sovereign-lands management, oil-and-gas permitting, and Great Salt Lake accounting and measurement. Several actions also direct agencies to report back with implementation plans or follow-up information for the Legislature.

Colorado River demand-management: the subcommittee approved two recommendations for the Colorado River Authority. First, it asked CRAU to coordinate with water suppliers that would benefit from demand-management and to return to the subcommittee with a proposal for funding the program beyond the 2026 irrigation season (the program was funded previously with one-time state dollars). Second, the committee requested that CRAU develop a proposal to amend the pilot’s enrollment criteria to address diversion, depletion and surface-management provisions…