A new proposal on Utah’s Capitol Hill would pay farmers to send some of their water to the Great Salt Lake instead of trying to eke out another harvest.
It seeks to balance competing interests of agriculture’s demand for water for food and crops and the demand to save the Great Salt Lake to stave off an ecological crisis.
“Hopefully it’s going to move some of that ag water to the lake in a way that makes everyone happy,” said Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, who is sponsoring the measure.
Rep. Owens is proposing “split season leasing.” It offers to compensate farmers for not growing late-season crops and, in exchange, they’d send the water they’d typically use for that crop down to the lake.
The idea has been negotiated for months on Capitol Hill and has the support of the Utah Farm Bureau, a powerful agriculture group that represents the state’s farmers and ranchers.
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