Utah Geological Survey director outlines budget shortfall, staff changes and a request for $1 million in permanent funding

The Utah Geological Survey Board heard a detailed finance and operations briefing on Aug. 20, 2025, and voted unanimously to approve minutes from April 16 and to formally ratify contract proposals carried over since the last meeting.

In a directors report, Darlene Battaglia, director of the Utah Geological Survey, told the board the agency had grown staff and taken on federal grants that required state match, and that those match obligations had eroded the surveys reserves. Battaglia said the survey is asking the Legislature to provide roughly $1,000,000 in ongoing funding to stabilize operations and maintain current staffing levels.

Battaglia said the agency had added staff to execute federal grants in recent years, increasing from about 70 positions in 2020 to roughly 92 in 2024; that headcount has been reduced to about 85 through retirements and a small reduction in force. She told the board, "We applied for a number of grants, and some of those grants have a match that UGS pays. . . . Those match funds really grew over the years." Battaglia added that the surveys practice of taking on grants without asking the Legislature for matching support contributed to the deterioration of carryover funds.

Why it matters: Battaglia told the board the UGS performs mapping, hazards, groundwater and energy-and-minerals work used by state and local agencies. She said the agencys statutory mission is to collect and distribute geologic information to aid state and local decision-makers, and that ongoing staffing and funding are necessary to meet those responsibilities.

Key details from the director and finance report - FY25 revenue collections and expenditures: Russell Moore, financial manager for the survey, reported roughly $4.4 million in collections for FY25 and total expenditures near $13.6 million. Moore said…