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Utah lawmakers convene for the 2026 General Session this month, and water is set to be a big topic once again.
Our state has one of the shortest sessions in the nation at just 45 days, including holidays and weekends. That means a deluge of bills inundate all the committee rooms and floor sessions on Capitol Hill. Here are some major water bills and issues we’ll be tracking.
Southwest Utah could see water exceptions
In discussions about the Colorado River, the entirety of Utah is often lumped in as part of the Upper Basin. But parts of Washington and Kane counties actually fall within the Lower Basin and are subject to different regulations. HB 187 would create carve-outs from certain state regulations for this geographically unusual corner of the state.
For one, it would exempt public water suppliers from a 40-year rule that puts a timeline on when they must develop municipal water rights.
The southwest section of Utah also faces a unique predicament when it comes to instream flows. As the Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell approached record lows in 2021 and again in 2022, state lawmakers overhauled water law to allow water users to dedicate their water to environmental needs. But in southwest Utah, water left instream flows to other states. The bill would bar water right holders in Utah’s portion of the Lower Basin from participating in instream flow programs.
Utilities might need to track leaks
Water in public supplies trickles away in all sorts of ways that go undetected, from leaking pipes to faulty equipment to tapping unmetered hydrants for firefighting. The average municipal system loses 16% of its water, according to federal data, and Joel Williams, acting director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, said up to 30% of water can mysteriously vanish from public systems. Resource managers often have no idea where it’s all going.
HB 154 directs the division to identify any potential leaky points in Utah’s water infrastructure. The bill doesn’t appropriate any money, and any potential fixes will need to wait for future legislation. It’s sponsored by Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Crews restore a canal pipe on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021.
Data centers would need to disclose their own water info
With the rise of artificial intelligence, data centers are becoming a hot topic across the country, and some big projects are in the works in the Beehive State. HB 76, sponsored by Rep. Jill Koford, R-Ogden, would require large facilities to report water information before construction, coordinate with local governments, then provide annual updates on consumption. We took a deeper look at this bill in our story that published over the weekend – “Can Utah become a data center hub without draining its water supply?”
Jordan River gets a spotlight
The Jordan River, connecting Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake, was a hydrologically significant but culturally neglected asset of the Salt Lake Valley for nearly a century. A draft bill sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, would give the river some love by funding removal of water-sucking invasive species, like phragmites, and replacing them with native plants. The legislation would also support development of recreational access on the river and remove homeless encampments from its banks.
The bill sponsor said it will take around $800,000 per year over “a few years” to address the phragmites. He’s also seeking a one-time $2 million appropriation to fund other river projects.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A canoe on the Jordan River in North Salt Lake on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025.
Drip irrigation requirements get another chance
Another bill might get resuscitated, prohibiting the use of overhead spray sprinklers for nonfunctional turf in new commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily developments in the Great Salt Lake Basin.
Similar legislation sponsored by Owens died on the House floor last year, even after water districts, canal companies, the Utah Division of Water Resources, the Legislative Water Development Commission and more gave it glowing recommendations.
Rep. Clint Okerlund, R-Sandy, the likely sponsor of the revived legislation, alluded to the fact that the Great Salt Lake currently faces a much more dire water situation than it during last year’s session.
Brine shrimp revenue may stay at the Great Salt Lake
Local aquaculture industries harvest brine shrimp eggs from the Great Salt Lake, then package and sell them across the world to raise the seafood people eat. Utah collects a tax on those products, and another draft bill would redirect those funds to a new purpose.
The funds currently go to an account meant to keep species off the federal endangered list. But lawmakers now want to make sure the brine shrimp dollars benefit sovereign lands, including the Great Salt Lake.
It means the brine shrimp tax — which generates around $800,000 a year for the state — will go toward efforts to support the lake’s ecosystem. Those efforts could be beneficial for the shrimp and the millions of migrating shorebirds that rely on them every year. The funds could also be used to buy up water leases to send more water to the lake.
Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful, will sponsor the bill, which is still unnumbered.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brine shrimp that thrive in the salty water of the Great Salt Lake can be harvested from large slicks full of eggs that float on the surface as pictured on Thursday, July 11, 2024.
Protecting water from cyber threats
HB 19 requires public drinking water suppliers to report any security breaches to the Utah Cyber Center within two hours. Sponsored by Rep. Colin Jack, R-Washington, the bill is meant to protect water systems from cyber threats, like AI deepfakes. Water utilities will also need to prepare an emergency response plan, which will become protected from public records requests.
Water leasing may get revisited
No draft bills or specific proposals have become public yet, but House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise, implied at a recent Great Salt Lake Strike Team presentation that the state’s water leasing program may need some tweaks. Water leasing was one of the biggest reforms touted by lawmakers to refill the Great Salt Lake and help boost flows in the Colorado River. It pays water right holders, like farmers, to instead leave their water untapped and let it benefit the environment. State officials and researchers, however, acknowledged Utah’s leasing program hasn’t been as widely adopted as previously hoped. And with the Great Salt Lake hovering only a few feet above record lows, and the Colorado River not faring much better, expect to see at least one bill addressing the program this session.