Citizen Portal
Sign In

Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!

Committee hears public push to move $200M to Great Salt Lake, debate over Bear River language

Utah Legislature - Natural Resources/Water Committee · February 12, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Lawmakers and a long list of public witnesses discussed SB 250, a proposal to move $200 million from the Water Infrastructure Restricted Account into a Great Salt Lake account to lease and secure water for the lake; supporters urged passage, while members debated removing language linked to the Bear River development.

Senator Lewin told the committee SB 250 would deauthorize language tied to the Bear River development and redirect $200,000,000 from the Water Infrastructure Restricted Account (WIRA) into a Great Salt Lake account to acquire and lease water rights for lake inflows. He said the measure would not create new taxes and is intended to match private and public funding to raise lake levels.

A steady stream of public commenters urged the committee to support the bill. Alta Fairborn, community water organizer at Utah Rivers Council, said the Bear River development would ‘‘be the death knell for the Great Salt Lake’’…

Already have an account? Log in

Subscribe to keep reading

Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.

  • Unlimited articles
  • AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
  • Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
  • Follow topics and more locations
  • 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
30-day money-back on paid plans