Take Action

Contact Your Legislator

Water policy is decided at the Utah State Capitol. A five-minute phone call puts pressure where it matters most.

Find Your State Legislator

Enter your address. You'll get your state senator and house representative, with contact info.

If you call — the harder ask, the bigger impact

30-second phone script

Phone calls weigh more than emails in legislative offices — staffers log them by name and position. Read this verbatim if you have to.

Read this aloud “Hi, my name is [your name]. I’m a constituent in [your city]. I’m calling about Great Salt Lake water policy. Three quick asks:
  1. Fully fund the voluntary water leasing program. HB 348 and HB 410 are working but only at scale.
  2. Reject any bill that weakens use-it-or-lose-it reform.
  3. Tell the legislator the Great Salt Lake is my top water priority this session.
Thank you.”
If you write — the easy ask

Use this letter

The 2026 session passed two landmark water leasing bills — HB 348 and HB 410 — that let farmers voluntarily lease water to the Great Salt Lake without forfeiting their rights. This is the single most important policy lever for the lake right now. But the program only works at scale if it’s funded and farmers actually participate.

TL;DR — what to emphasize
  • Fund the leasing program (HB 348 / HB 410) at scale
  • Don’t weaken use-it-or-lose-it reform
  • The lake is your top water priority

Personalize it — even one sentence about why this matters to you makes a difference.

Dear [Legislator Name], I'm writing about the Great Salt Lake. Thank you for the progress made in the 2026 session — HB 348 and HB 410 are meaningful steps toward a functioning water market that can get water to the lake without taking it from farmers permanently. I urge you to ensure this program receives sustained funding and continued legislative support so thousands of farmers can participate voluntarily. The math is straightforward: irrigated alfalfa in the Great Salt Lake basin consumes an estimated 537,000–606,000 acre-feet of water per year — up to 93% of the roughly 650,000 acre-feet the lake needs annually to stabilize. The consequences of inaction include toxic dust affecting 2.5 million residents, the collapse of a $1.5 billion brine shrimp industry, and the loss of critical habitat for 10 million migratory birds. The voluntary leasing framework is the right approach. Please ensure it has the funding, oversight, and political support to work at the scale this crisis demands. Sincerely, [Your Name] [Your City, Utah]
Close the loop

After you call

Most action pages stop here. Here’s what actually happens next:

  • Legislative offices log every call by district. If you’re a constituent, your call counts more than non-constituent ones.
  • Utah’s session is 45 days (January–March). The pressure window is short. Calls during session land harder than off-season ones.
  • Track the bills you called about at le.utah.gov. Search by bill number; the vote record is public.
  • If your rep votes against the lake, follow up — on social, with a letter to the editor, or by calling the office back.
  • HB 348 and HB 410 passed in 2026 because thousands of Utahns called. It works.
Where to plug in

Find your role

Save the Commons is a data project. These organizations are leading the policy, science, and advocacy. Pick your entry point.

Start here
Grow the Flow
The central coordinating nonprofit. Led by Dr. Ben Abbott (BYU). Lobby days, the People’s Summit, action alerts — this is the front door.
Track bills
FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake
The longest-running GSL advocacy org and the go-to legislative watchdog. Their session tracker has bill-by-bill status during each Utah session.
Read the journalism
Great Salt Lake Collaborative
Solutions journalism from a coalition of Utah newsrooms. The single best place to keep up with what’s actually moving.
Pressure 4,200 ft
Utah Rivers Council / 4,200 Project
Water policy reform since 1994. The 4,200 Project is their campaign to raise the lake to a sustainable 4,200 feet.
Funding
Great Salt Lake Rising
$100M private-sector initiative. Board includes leaders from the Eccles Foundation, Ivory Homes, and Deseret Management Corp.
Legal accountability
Great Salt Lake Waterkeeper
Part of the global Waterkeeper Alliance network. Focused on the migratory bird corridor and legal accountability.
Research & policy
Great Salt Lake Project — University of Utah
The Stegner Center’s policy research team. Published the 2026 Legislative Session rescue plan and policy guide.
Transparency

See how we got these numbers

Every claim on this site is sourced from public data. The methodology, the dataset, and the GeoJSON file are all available.

View the Data & Methodology