Saving the Great Salt Lake should be our number one priority, but SB211, sponsored by Senate President Stuart Adams, does exactly the opposite. SB211 creates an entity called the Water Development Council (WDC) that is comprised of representatives from the four largest water conservancy districts in Utah and from the Division of Water Resources.
If the Utah Legislature wants the destruction of the Great Salt Lake on their heads, so be it. If they want the history books to remember them as the elected officials who endorsed closing the doors to citizens, so be it. But that will stand in direct opposition to what the majority of Utahns, including myself, want.
It seems that some Utah legislators would do well to remember who they work for — not for water lobbyists, not for special interests, not for themselves, but for the people of Utah.
SB211 is a dangerous bill, and any legislator who claims to care about the future of Utah would be wise to vote against it. In plain language, SB211 eliminates citizen oversight. The entity would be exempt from open meetings and records management; it would not have to notify the public of their meetings, release meeting agendas or minutes, or share any documents with the public. Under SB211, the new Water Development Council could pursue the Bear River Development without the public’s knowledge, dramatically reducing the Lake’s water levels and exposing even more toxic lake bed. Bear River Development is a proposal that would divert the single largest water source to the Great Salt Lake, thereby dropping its water levels several feet lower.
How these senators expect their grandchildren to live and thrive in a state where the very air they breathe is toxic with airborne pollutants from exposed lake bed is beyond me.
The water agencies pushing the Water Development Council are the main proponents of Bear River Development and the Lake Powell pipeline. SB211 would empower these agencies to advance these destructive projects, at public expense.
As a Utahn, I have the right to know what my government is doing. State record laws protect certain negotiations and plans until it is safe to reveal them to the public. It seems clear to me that the purpose of this secrecy is to pave the way for the Utah Legislature to pursue Bear River Development, and other destructive water projects, not for preserving the sanctity of any negotiations.
This bill makes a mockery of our democracy. It will destroy the lives of so many Utahns while insulating the pockets of a select few. If there is nothing to hide, why exclude the public? Is it because they know the majority of Utahns oppose Bear River Development and the Lake Powell Pipeline? Is it because they fear the public demanding that the council pursue common sense measures such as conservation and infrastructure improvement over “get-rich-quick” water schemes? Public oversight should be mandatory.
Claire Geddes
Claire Geddes is the former director of Utah Legislative Watch, a nonprofit citizens’ organization she founded in the late nineties. Before that, she was state director of Utah, United We Stand, a national organization that was formed as a result of Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign.
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