At its peak the Great Salt Lake, near Salt Lake City, covered roughly 2,300 square miles—larger than Delaware—with a rich ecosystem and crucial role in Utah’s water and economy. Decades of heavy water use and weak winters have left it a fraction of that size. Exposed lakebed now stretches more than a thousand square miles and contains heavy metals and toxins, including arsenic, that can become airborne dust, posing respiratory risks to roughly 2.5 million people and affecting neighboring states.
The lake supports important industries and ecosystems: it produces up to 50% of the world’s brine shrimp (a key feed for farmed fish and shrimp), provides minerals such as lithium and magnesium, and is a stopover for millions of migratory birds. Falling water levels threaten bird habitat, local industry, regional air quality, and agriculture that relies on lake-derived products.
Utah leaders have long sought outside help. The lake’s main inflows come from mountain snowpack; during poor snow years—2026 was Utah’s worst on record—less water reaches the lake. Rivers that historically fed the lake are frequently diverted for other uses before reaching it. Restoring the lake would require a dramatic increase in water delivery; Ben Abbott, an ecology professor at Brigham Young University and director of the advocacy group Grow the Flow, estimates the lake needs roughly 500,000 to 800,000 acre-feet per year to stop its decline, and about one million acre-feet annually to return to historic levels—an enormous quantity that will require bold, adaptive policy and funding.
The issue reached the White House after Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox met President Trump in late February. Cox had been invited to the White House as part of a governors’ meeting; he brought the lake as a top priority. Joel Ferry, executive director of Utah’s division of natural resources, helped prepare the governor. What was scheduled as a short meeting stretched to about an hour and a half, Ferry said, and he described Trump as committing to “make history” on the issue. At a Feb. 21 White House dinner with governors, Trump publicly restated the pledge: “We’re going to save it. We’re not going to let that go.”
The push included influencers close to Trump. Mark Burnett, the former producer of The Apprentice and now a special envoy to the U.K. under the Trump administration, is a Utah transplant and board member of Grow the Flow. Burnett and others had been engaging federal officials about coordinating a response to the lake’s decline, helping propel the issue to the president’s attention.
To appeal to Trump, advocates framed the problem not only as environmental but as an urgent health, economic, and regional threat. They emphasized the scale of the rescue effort and the national significance of preventing toxic dust, preserving mineral resources, and saving an ecosystem that supports global aquaculture supply chains.
Cox asked the federal government for $1 billion to help get water to the lake. According to Utah officials, Trump didn’t flinch at the figure. The president has since mentioned the lake multiple times on social media, including posts declaring that “Only ‘TRUMP’ CAN DO IT!” and a Truth Social post calling the situation an “Environmental hazard” that must be addressed “IMMEDIATELY,” ending with a play on his slogan: “MAKE ‘THE LAKE’ GREAT AGAIN!”
The Trump administration’s proposed 2027 fiscal budget includes the full $1 billion request for Great Salt Lake—an unusual line in a budget that seeks cuts in many other areas. That moves the funding request into the federal process, but Congress will have the final say on whether the money is approved.
Scientists and advocates stress that money alone won’t be enough: returning the lake to healthy levels will require changes in water management, conservation, and coordination across state and local actors. If successful, restoring a terminal saline lake like Great Salt Lake would be unprecedented, Abbott said. Utah officials also note timing pressures: they want to improve the lake’s outlook well before the state hosts the 2034 Winter Olympic Games.
For now, the combination of local lobbying, high-level attention in the White House, and a $1 billion federal line item in the president’s budget has put Great Salt Lake squarely on the national agenda. Congress, state agencies, scientists, and stakeholders will have to agree on how to turn funding and commitments into the large-scale water deliveries and policy changes the lake needs.