Opinion: Utah needs to take advantage of recent historic investments in drought resilience

On a recent hike on Mt. Olympus, Utah’s water crisis hit me in the most personal way: I ran out of water. Thirsty, and taking in the sweep of the Salt Lake Valley and the lake beyond as I slowly descended, I was put in mind of Wallace Stegner’s assertion that the West needs “a civilization to match the scenery.” Unless we do a better job of responsibly stewarding our ever-scarcer water, the future of both civilization and scenery is at risk.

I know firsthand how critical water is to our economy and way of life. I got my start moving pipes by hand to irrigate crops on our family ranch in Idaho at the age of 13 and now run two mutual water companies, administer hundreds of water rights for agricultural and municipal use and advocate for responsible water regulations and policies on a local, state and national level.

For me, the shrinking Great Salt Lake and imperiled Colorado River are an ever-present concern. These days, no sooner does the weather seem to give us a reprieve than drought conditions come roaring back. With monthly temperatures averaging 6 to 7 degrees above normal in some places, this summer has hammered home the importance of managing our water resources for the long term.

The good news is that we’re already taking action to ensure there’s enough water for people and nature, now and into the future. In the last three years, billions of dollars of public and private funding have been poured into projects to revive watersheds and improve water infrastructure here in Utah and neighboring states. These once-in-a-generation investments promise to make our state’s water more reliable and abundant, yet few people are aware of the remarkable scale and scope of their benefits.

The $50 million Central Utah Project Completion is one of over 40 drought-resilience projects in Utah made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The lion’s share of this project will be devoted to constructing pipelines to provide drinking water to over 100,000 people in southern Utah County, while making more water available for wildlife.

This effort will also fund the completion of the Provo River Delta Restoration Project , helping to bring back this once-lush landscape of braided streams and shady groves. Restoration work will boost the population of the June sucker, an endangered native fish, and will open up new opportunities for sport fishing, boating and hiking.

In northern Utah, a $10.4 million Bureau of Land Management project will restore natural habitats around Bear Lake and Bear River, one of the three rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake. This project will plant native vegetation, improve stream crossings and restore habitat for big game and endangered sage-grouse. Healthy riverside habitats act like sponges, absorbing water during rain and snowmelt and slowly releasing it during dry periods, making them particularly important in arid regions.

Investments like these undergird our state’s economy. Utah’s cities, towns and farmland would not exist without the water flowing in our rivers and irrigation canals. But these investments do more than operate in the background — they also directly create jobs. Every million dollars invested in drought mitigation and other climate resilience projects generates 14 new well-paying jobs, according to a 2023 study . With hundreds of millions of dollars in play, this translates to thousands of new jobs in Utah in water- and conservation-related fields alone.

While there’s an enormous amount of money being spent to improve water availability across Western states, these investments face an uncertain future here in Utah. It’s up to us to make sure our state gets its fair share.

Worried as I am about our overdrawn rivers and lakes, I know we can’t shut the door to growth and development. We need to come up with creative solutions that let us do more with less water, and in ways that support a sustainable economy for the long term. The projects made possible by new climate and infrastructure investments show us the way forward.

Chris Robinson is the CEO of The Ensign Group, which ranches over 1 million acres of private and public lands in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. He is the chair of The Nature Conservancy’s Utah chapter, a member of the Summit County Council, a trustee of Weber Basin Water Conservancy District and co-chair of the Northern Advisory Council of the Colorado River Authority of Utah.