Letter to Elected Official-Step 1
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These 3 Great Salt Lake-related bills pass their first test. Here's how they'd help the lake
By Carter Williams, KSL | Posted - Feb. 6, 2026 at 9:56 a.m.
Gia Ly, of Salt Lake City, feels the water, sand and brine shrimp at the Great Salt Lake on June 18, 2012. A trio of Great Salt Lake-related bills passed through a House of Representatives committee with glowing reviews. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Hannah Freeze and her husband were on their Box Elder County farm when they started brainstorming what would become HB410, a bill calling for a program that would make it easier for farmers like themselves to send water to the Great Salt Lake.
- Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL.com who covers Salt Lake City, Utah transportation, outdoors, the environment, weather, and often Great Salt Lake policy issues ((Williams, These 3 Great Salt Lake-related bills…, 2026)).
- He’s written a whole series of stories about the Great Salt Lake and Utah water legislation, so HB410 fits squarely into his regular environment-and-water beat ((Williams, There’s a new ‘driver’ in Great Salt Lake water…, 2026); (Williams, How the Utah Legislature handled the Great Salt Lake…, 2024)).
- Because HB410 is about making it easier to lease agricultural water to the Great Salt Lake, it lies at the intersection of environment, water policy, and agriculture—exactly the policy space he regularly reports on ((Williams, These 3 Great Salt Lake-related bills…, 2026)).
- He also reports as part of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a multi‑newsroom project focused on solutions journalism around the lake’s decline, which is why he keeps returning to bills like HB410 ((Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Home, 2026)).
If you keep reading this article about HB410, what’s one question or reaction you’d want to jot down right now—then either click Continue with AI to talk it out here, or head to Create Document to start your own notes or draft about it?
Here’s what I can tell from public info (and a small snag I ran into):
- Brad R. Wilson is a Republican politician and real-estate developer who served in the Utah House of Representatives (District 15) from 2011–2023 and was Speaker of the House from 2019–2023 ((“Brad Wilson (politician),” Wikipedia, 2024)).
- As Speaker, Wilson was a key political champion for the Great Salt Lake and organized a major “Save the Great Salt Lake” summit in 2022, pushing for lake‑focused legislation and funding ((Utah Rivers Council, “URC Unveils Proposed Bill to Save the Great Salt Lake,” 2022)).
- He also sponsored earlier Great Salt Lake–related laws, like a 2022 bill creating a Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement program that invests in preserving and restoring the lake ((“Brad Wilson (politician),” Wikipedia, 2024)).
- When I followed the HB410 link you pasted, it currently goes to a different bill (an “Insurance Amendments” bill sponsored by Rep. James Dunnigan), so I couldn’t confirm that HB410 on that page is Brad Wilson’s bill or see an official statement of his reasons for sponsoring it ((Utah Legislature, H.B. 410 Insurance Amendments, 2023)).
If you’re writing about this, what’s one guess you have—based on Wilson’s past Great Salt Lake work and Hannah Freeze’s story—about his motivations for sponsoring “your” HB410 that you could put into your own words right now (and then either click Continue with AI to keep thinking it through here OR head to Create Document to start drafting or upload the full article)?
- You already found one key resource: the official Utah Legislature page for HB410, which will show the bill text, status, sponsor, and any fiscal notes or amendments.
- If you’re looking for context on Utah water leasing more broadly (especially for environmental flows like the Great Salt Lake), Utah’s Division of Water Resources and Division of Water Rights both have plain-language pages that walk through how leases, instream flows, and temporary transfers work.
- Local news outlets in Utah (especially those that cover water issues and the Great Salt Lake) often publish explainers that translate the legal language of bills like HB410 into concrete examples for farmers, cities, and conservation groups.
- University-based water centers in Utah (for example, those tied to law schools or environmental programs) sometimes host webinars or write policy briefs about new tools such as water leases for lake and river protection.
If you tell me whether you mostly want farmer-focused “how would this work for me?” information, or more legal/policy background, I can help you decide which type of resource to read first—and then you can either click Continue with AI to keep digging into this together, or go to Create Document to upload an article about HB410/water leasing (or start your own notes on it) and work from there; what kind of resource do you want first?
- For the bill itself, the official Utah Legislature page for HB410 is the best starting point; it has the full text, status, and any amendments or fiscal notes, and it’s updated in real time by the state ((Utah State Legislature, n.d.)).
- For farmer-friendly info on leasing water to help the Great Salt Lake (including split-season leases, who to contact, and example deals), Grow the Flow’s “Water Leasing” page is very practical and written in plain language ((Grow the Flow Utah, Water Leasing, n.d.)).
- For background on Utah’s broader “water marketing” tools (including temporary leasing and water banking that HB410 is building on), the Utah Division of Water Resources’ Water Banking Act page explains how voluntary leases work and how environmental or instream uses can be protected ((Utah Division of Water Resources, Water Banking Act, n.d.)).
- For a sense of how ag water optimization and savings programs fit into water-sharing with places like the Great Salt Lake, check out Utah’s Agricultural Water Optimization pages at the Department of Agriculture and Food or the Division of Water Resources, which show how on-farm projects can free up water without hurting production ((Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Agricultural Water Optimization, 2025); (Utah Division of Water Resources, Agricultural Water Optimization, 2025)).
If you skim one of these and want help turning it into notes or a short explanation in your own words, you can either click Continue with AI so we talk through what you’re seeing, or go to Create Document to paste in an article about HB410/water leasing (or start your own notes) and respond right now—what’s the first thing you’d like to capture or understand from these resources?
"This is something that's a scary topic. It's something that we are cautiously optimistic about in the agricultural community," said Freeze, who also serves as Utah's Great Salt Lake deputy commissioner, as she explained it to members of the Utah House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on Thursday.
HB410, sponsored by Rep. Jill Koford, R-Ogden, calls for the creation of the Great Salt Lake Preservation Program, a new fund and governing board that protects leased water so that it gets to the lake. It also creates other measures meant to streamline the process, as well as mechanisms that help the Utah Legislature tweak the program as needed in the coming years.
It would make it easier for farmers to make "game-time decisions" regarding their water based on weather or market conditions every year, Freeze explained. They could seek water leasing, which is where the state pays for their water to send it downstream to the lake, if that makes sense one year. If it makes sense to keep the water during another year, they'd have that option, too.
Koford is also sponsoring HB348, which is slightly similar. It seeks to create a new dedicated water application process for water rights holders seeking to send water to troubled bodies of water, like the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River system.
The bill calls on the Utah Division of Water Rights to prioritize dedicated water applications so they're handled faster. It would also essentially make it easier for water rights holders to choose whether to retain their water rights or send water downstream, a decision that can be made at the start of every year, said Teresa Wilhelmsen, the state engineer.
Her office would know how to distribute that water once an application is finalized, and then track it to make sure it ends up in its intended destination.
"We'll account for it and report at the end of the year how much of that water did make it to any of those systems," she said. "It really will help us streamline."
Both bills faced little pushback on Thursday, receiving unanimous support from the committee after conservation groups, agricultural organizations and others spoke in favor of them.
They said it provides farmers and ranchers the flexibility to choose when to dedicate water, which is vital because agricultural water use still accounts for the majority of the depletions in water that would otherwise end up in the Great Salt Lake. Some said they also like that the legislation would allow for philanthropic donations to pay for more water leasing.
"It's part of a sustained effort to ... help those who want to help the lake, and the farmers do," said Warren Peterson, representing Utah Farm Bureau. "We think it will accelerate efforts for agriculture to help with the lake."
That's why Brian Steed, Utah's Great Salt Lake commissioner, also backed the legislative effort. He called both bills important in getting water "where it needs to be," whether that's the lake or the Colorado River system.
Brine shrimp bill
The committee also voted unanimously to endorse HB247, a Great Salt Lake funding amendment bill sponsored by Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful, on Thursday. The bill, if approved, would redirect a portion of the state's brine shrimp tax to a state sovereign lands management account starting in July 2027, which could be used for water leasing for the Great Salt Lake or projects that could help brine shrimp health.
This could allow for more ways to improve the lake, which would then benefit where brine shrimp live, said Tim Hawkes, board chairman of the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, as he spoke in favor of the bill.
"If the industry is going to have to pay this royalty, it's nice to see that money come back to protect the resource that generates the funds to begin with," he said.
All three bills now move forward to the Utah House of Representatives for a full vote. All must be approved by the House and Senate by March 6 before they can potentially go into law.
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