Darren Hess, who oversees operations at the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, told Summit County residents at a panel discussion Tuesday that the snowmelt is “basically done” — and it ended a month early.
“We’ve forever set records now with the year 2026,” he said at the “Tapping In” event at Mountain Regional Water’s headquarters. “And we just didn't set a record, I mean, we killed it. In the wrong direction. We don't want to set that record.”
The Weber Basin water district serves most of Summit, Morgan, Weber and Davis counties with a series of reservoirs, pipes and other infrastructure. It is projecting a “moderate” water shortage by June 1.
The water district’s board approved a 20% cut to agricultural irrigation, outdoor watering and untreated water contracts this year.
But Weber Basin is a wholesaler, meaning most customers get that water by way of the smaller, local water companies that appear on their bills.
Individual water providers may decide to lean on other sources to mitigate Weber Basin’s cuts.
Ordinarily, a moderate water shortage also means cutting indoor residential water deliveries by 5%. Hess said the Weber Basin district isn’t doing that yet.
The panel’s moderator Tuesday was former state hydrologist and Silver Springs resident Matt Lindon. Despite water managers’ best efforts, he presented data showing Utah’s average temperature is warming, and warming more quickly in recent years.
Scientists say that’s the driving force behind drought in the West.
“The Great Salt Lake, I’m afraid to say, is toast. It's heading for a collapse, probably this year,” Lindon predicted.
Summit County Councilmember Chris Robinson, who sits on the Weber Basin’s board, doesn’t know for sure if the lake has reached the point of no return.
“We're lucky to have Weber Basin as a partner in the Snyderville Basin and the whole county because we've set things in motion that will allow us to have the necessary water,” he said after the panel.
Regardless, Lindon sees an urgent need for conservation at a large scale to sustain the water supply for humans as well as the lake.
“We could stop burning stuff; that's a big solution,” Lindon said, referring to fossil fuels. “But what can we do individually? No lawns or golf courses? No snowmaking? Shorter showers? Less data centers? Or we can keep pumping our clean, ancient old groundwater until it's all gone.”
He said conservation is first and foremost a matter of “political will,” or whether leaders in the western U.S. can agree on where and how to cut back. He thinks it's better to put pressure on politicians, rather than water salespeople, to drive those cuts.
