Utah News

Winter’s disastrously low snowfall could further complicate an already-audacious plan to refill the dying Great Salt Lake in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah.

The plan being pushed by Utah officials and Olympics supporters received a major boost when President Donald Trump proposed $1 billion in federal assistance to acquire more water and address environmental concerns. The lake has been shrinking for decades as farmers divert melting snow and rain onto fields to grow crops, including alfalfa for cattle.

Boosters remain optimistic that the coalition they’ve assembled can reverse the long-term declines in time for the lake to reflect the Olympic flame for the world.

“I am fully convinced we’re going to fix this. This is a fixable problem,” said Josh Romney, a Utah businessman and son of former Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

Josh Romney said saving the lake may cost as much as $5 billion and require about 260 billion gallons of water, roughly the same amount used by residents and businesses in New York City over nine months.

What problems does the Great Salt Lake face?

Lake levels have always fluctuated in the Great Salt Lake, but in 2022 water levels fell to their lowest in recorded history. And while they have rebounded slightly since then, ecologists, climate experts and the lake’s supporters say long-term trends are grim due to water use and climate change.

In addition to its iconic role in helping define Salt Lake City, the lake is a popular recreation destination and a critical wildlife habitat for migrating birds. It’s also home to a flourishing fishing industry, where workers scoop up vast quantities of microscopic brine shrimp sold internationally as fish food.

“The ecosystem is on life support. We’re on the edge of ecological collapse, as well as economic and hydrological collapse with the lake, and that is because of local water overuse in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming,” said Ben Abbott, a professor of ecology at Brigham Young University and executive director of Grow the Flow, a water policy nonprofit.

Around 80% of the lake’s decline is caused by water overuse, with the remaining portion attributable to climate change and drought, Abbott said.

Abbott and other lake experts said this year’s poor snowfall won’t help their efforts.

Climate change is altering weather patterns across the West, warming temperatures, increasing evaporation and reducing snowpack.

Why is the Great Salt Lake drying up?

Although climate change contributes to the lake’s woes, Abbott and other experts said agricultural use is the single-largest factor in drying up the lake. Another is population growth.

The suburbs around Salt Lake City are among the fastest-growing in the country, and Utah is growing much faster than the rest of the nation.

From 2024 to 2025, according to the Census Bureau, Utah’s population grew by 1%, more than Arizona or Nevada, making it the 5th-fastest growing state that year. All those new residents – particularly the lush green lawns many grow in the desert-like climate – are consuming water that would ordinarily flow into the Great Salt Lake.

Farmers growing alfalfa for cattle and horses are the primary drivers of water use, however. And when it comes to convincing farmers to help recharge the lake, Romney said it’s important that everything be voluntary.

“It’s not the same as encouraging people with big lawns to turn down their water,” he said. “When you have that conversation with farmers, it’s their livelihood, not just affecting the color of their lawn, but how much money they are able to bring home for their families.”

The goal would be to provide opportunities for farmers to continue to farm or grow crops, but in a way that reduces water use while realizing economic benefits, he said. “There are a lot of solutions out there that reduce water while maintaining crop yield.”

He sees “massive” opportunities on the residential side, just by getting people to stop overwatering their lawns. Even if people just watered what the lawn needs and not what they think it needs, the region could achieve 200,000 acre-feet of water savings, he said.

How does 2025-2026 snowfall aliffect the lake?

Most of the West saw historically poor snowfall over winter, which has significant implications for residents and businesses that depend on the melting snow for irrigation each summer. But because the water that eventually ends up in the Great Salt Lake itself is too salty for drinking or irrigation, water managers won’t be drawing it down the way they will with other lakes and reservoirs like Lake Powell in southern Utah.

The low snowfall in the valleys around the Great Salt Lake are symptoms of the lake’s chronically low water levels, Abbott said. “Part of the reason why we had such a bad snow year this year is because the lake is so small that we don’t have as much water vapor coming from the lake to support our snow.”

In 1986, when the lake was at a record high, it covered approximately 2,300 square miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2022, it covered less than 1,000 square miles. Restoring the lake would increase the rain and snow, Abbott said.

Winter’s low snow could have a short-term impact on how much water flows into the lake, but it’s “so big that it can deal with one or even a number of drought years,” Abbott said. “What it can’t deal with is, we’ve diverted that water year after year after year, over a century.”

What environmental problems are connected to the Great Salt Lake?

Because the lake doesn’t have an outlet, water flowing in eventually evaporates, leaving behind minerals, salt and other substances. Those deposits make the lake saltier when it holds less water, creating a potentially toxic environment for birds or fish.

But salty is a perfect environment for brine shrimp – those tiny little creatures sold as Sea-Monkeys. Harvesting brine shrimp eggs for commercial fish food supports thousands of jobs and provides more than $1.5 billion in revenue annually. State officials say half of all farmed fish worldwide are raised on Utah-harvested brine shrimp eggs.

However, the mineral deposits left behind when lake levels drop and the lakebed dries out and blows away in the wind contribute to air pollution in the region, along with persistent ozone issues. Last year, the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem metro area ranked 25th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.

What are Great Salt Lake boosters trying to do?

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in fall 2025 announced a plan to top up the lake in advance of the Winter Olympics.

“The Great Salt Lake is our lake, our heritage, and our responsibility,” he said at the time, announcing that $200 million in private donations had already been pledged to help.

Romney said he’s optimistic that businesses and residents, along with the government, can work together to save the lake. One of the coalition’s first big steps was to help the state buy the defunct U.S. Magnesium plant along the shore, keeping 3.26 billion gallons of water in the lake.

Although state officials won the bid, they needed Romney’s Great Salt Lake Rising group to help cover half the immediate cost. Romney called the partnership “one of the largest environmental wins in the last two decades in the West.”

Supporters are encouraged by a building sense of unity they see in Utah to address the lake’s crisis. State legislators recently approved three bills to help the lake. Romney and Abbott said leaders of the state’s predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have taken steps to promote the lake’s restoration. The church has committed water and has adopted irrigation and landscaping measures that reduce use at many of its Utah facilities.

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Northern Hemisphere, and the world’s 8th-largest, said Hannah Freeze, deputy commissioner of the Great Salt Lake. The commissioner’s office coordinates lake improvement efforts among the nonprofits, development community and governments.

“The lake is of hemispheric importance,” Freeze said. “It’s just a huge driver for our economy, our hydrology and the way we live here in Utah.”

How does Trump plan to save the Great Salt Lake?

Federal officials have not offered more specifics on how Trump’s $1 billion plan would work, instead referring reporters to a four-sentence statement in the White House budget proposal that notes any restoration efforts would require a comprehensive federal approach. The funding also requires Congressional approval.

The president himself on March 10 declared that only Trump can save the Great Salt Lake, which he said would be out of water “in a short period of time” unless he stepped in.

“Together, these investments would ensure the Great Salt Lake continues to support global aquaculture, serves as a domestic source of critical minerals, and drives economic activity in Utah and beyond,” Trump’s budget says.

Freeze, the deputy lake commissioner, called Trump’s support “wildly significant.”

Lynn de Freitas, the executive director of FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, said she’s glad to see decades of work paying off. The nonprofit has been working for more than 30 years to address the environmental conditions and consequences that have caused the lake’s dramatic rise and fall.

Today, the lake averages about 33-feet deep, but can spread out over a larger area with even a little bit of rain, like batter poured into a cake pan, de Freitas said.

She’s waiting to hear what specifics the president’s plan will fund, from potential changes to the railroad causeway that essentially cuts the lake in half, to measures limiting how much sediment flows in. She said, at this point, any and all help is welcome given the long-term forecasts.

“It’s very good news to hear,” she said. “I think there is a recognition that the West is going through some heavy times.”

Trevor Hughes and Dinah Voyles Pulver, national correspondents for USA TODAY, write about the impacts of climate change and weather disasters across the nation, among other news topics. Reach them at thughes@usatodayco.com and dpulver@usatodayco.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Great Salt Lake is dying and fixing it could cost billions

The Utah Jazz didn’t just close out their home schedule. They gave their fans something that felt almost impossible to process in real time. On a night that could have easily slipped by as another late-season game, Utah turned it into a full-blown showcase of chaos, chemistry, and creativity.

Every time you glanced at the box score, something new jumped out. Another double-double. Another player hitting double figures. Another stat that made you stop and double-check it. By the end of the night, what the Jazz had done against the Memphis Grizzlies wasn’t just impressive. It was something the league had literally never seen before.

According to OptaSTATS, Utah became the first team in NBA history to record all of this in a single game:

• 7 players with 10+ points

• 5 players with a double-double

• 4 players with 10+ rebounds

• 3 players with 10+ assists

• 2 players with a triple-double

It reads more like a video game stat line than something that actually happened on an NBA floor.

A night where everyone had a moment

This wasn’t about one player taking over. It was about everyone finding a way to matter. Bez Mbeng and John Konchar led the charge with triple-doubles, something rare enough on its own. Seeing two teammates do it in the same game made it feel surreal. Mbeng poured in 27 points to go with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, playing with a confidence that stood out from the opening tip. Konchar followed with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, adding steals, blocks, and constant activity that never really showed up fully in the box score.

Then there was Oscar Tshiebwe, who completely owned the glass with 22 rebounds, turning missed shots into second chances all night. Ace Bailey and Kennedy Chandler each added double-doubles of their own, continuing the theme of balance that defined the entire game.

Seven players scored in double figures. Five finished with double-doubles. It felt like every rotation player had a stretch where the game ran through them.

You almost never see something like this

Yes, the circumstances were unusual. Both teams were short-handed. Rotations were tight. The game opened up in ways it normally doesn’t.

But even with all of that, this still doesn’t happen. The NBA has seen decades of high-scoring games, stat-padding nights, and triple-double performances. Even so, no team had ever put together this exact combination of production across the board. Not once.

That is what makes this night stick. It wasn’t just big numbers. It was the way those numbers were spread out, layered on top of each other until the entire stat sheet looked unreal.

Maybe this is what Utah is building

For a team still figuring out its long-term identity, this felt like a glimpse into a different kind of future. Not one built around a single dominant star, but one where the impact comes from everywhere. Players stepping into bigger roles. Bench pieces are making real contributions. Everyone is staying involved.

On this night, it worked to perfection. And even if it never looks exactly like this again, the Utah Jazz gave their fans something rare. A game that didn’t just end with a win, but with history.

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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Apr 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The postseason stakes are already locked in, but Saturday afternoon’s matchup at the Delta Center still carries plenty of weight as the Carolina Hurricanes visit the newly playoff-bound Utah Mammoth for a 3:00 p.m. MT puck drop.

Broadcast coverage will be available on Utah16 and Mammoth+, with radio coverage across the Mammoth App, NHL App, NHL.com, KSL Sports Zone (97.5 FM/1280 AM), and the KSL Sports App.

Utah enters the contest at 42-30-6, riding a five-game winning streak and sitting 7-3-0 over its last 10 games. The momentum has carried the club into franchise history, as the Mammoth officially clinched their first-ever playoff berth on Thursday night. They currently occupy the first Western Conference wild card position with 90 points, holding a five-point cushion over the Los Angeles Kings in the second wild card spot.

Their most recent outing was a convincing 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators, powered by goals from Kailer Yamamoto, Nick Schmaltz (power-play), Lawson Crouse, and Dylan Guenther. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka was steady once again, turning aside 29 of 30 shots faced.

Offensively, Utah has leaned heavily on Dylan Guenther, who leads the team with 39 goals and ranks third in scoring with 71 points. Captain Clayton Keller remains the engine of the attack, pacing the team with 57 assists and 83 points. Nick Schmaltz has been equally impactful, contributing 31 goals and 72 points, while Mikhail Sergachev continues to drive play from the blue line with a team-leading 47 assists among defensemen.

Between the pipes, Vejmelka has delivered a workhorse season, appearing in 61 games with a 37-19-3 record, a 2.71 goals-against average, and a .898 save percentage. Backup Vítek Vaněček has appeared in 20 games, posting a 5-11-3 record, a 2.87 goals-against average, and a .886 save percentage.

Looking ahead, Utah will travel to face the Calgary Flames on Sunday in the second half of a back-to-back before returning home for its final two games of the regular season.

On the other side, Carolina arrives at 51-22-6, also 7-3-0 in its last 10, and riding a two-game winning streak with victories in four of its last five. The Hurricanes have already secured both a playoff berth and the Metropolitan Division title, marking their fourth division crown in six seasons.

Their most recent performance was a dominant 7-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, highlighted by multi-goal efforts from Logan Stankoven and Mark Jankowski. Sean Walker, K’Andre Miller, and Taylor Hall also found the net, while Frederik Andersen stopped 23 of 25 shots.

Seth Jarvis leads Carolina with 32 goals, while Sebastian Aho remains the primary playmaker with 53 assists and 79 points. Andrei Svechnikov has added 30 goals and 69 points, and Nikolaj Ehlers has contributed 42 assists in a strong supporting role.

In net, the Hurricanes have leaned on a tandem of Brandon Bussi and Frederik Andersen. Bussi has quietly put together a strong 30-6-1 record with a 2.52 goals-against average and .892 save percentage. Andersen, meanwhile, sits at 15-14-5 with a 3.11 goals-against average and .871 save percentage.

Saturday’s game marks the second stop on Carolina’s four-game season-closing road trip, which will continue against the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders next week.

From a numbers standpoint, both teams bring elite resumes into the matchup. Schmaltz’s nine game-winning goals are tied for third-most in the NHL, while Keller is tied for second in overtime goals with four. Jarvis’ four shorthanded goals also rank among the league leaders.

Carolina’s 108 points are second-best in the NHL, trailing only the Colorado Avalanche, while its 51 wins are second only to Colorado’s 52. Utah, meanwhile, becomes just the fourth Western Conference team to clinch a postseason berth this season.

The Hurricanes have also been especially dangerous in key moments, scoring the second-most first-period goals in the league (92) and leading the NHL in third-period goals (102). In goal, Vejmelka’s 37 wins are tied with Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most in the league, while Bussi’s 30 wins rank tied for fourth.

This is the final regular season meeting between Utah and Carolina. The Hurricanes edged the first matchup 5-4 back on Jan. 29.

Utah’s remaining schedule includes a road game in Calgary on Apr. 12, a matchup with the Winnipeg Jets on Apr. 14, and a regular-season finale against the St. Louis Blues on Apr. 16. layoff Surge Meets Division Dominance

A Utah mother made a frantic and desperate 911 call moments before her husband opened fire on their whole family, police say.

Kaylene Allred, 61, was killed and her two children were injured in the attack by 64-year-old Floyal Allred, according to authorities. Allred called 911 just after 10:30 pm on March 31. As she spoke to the dispatcher, shots rang out in the background, and Allred could be heard screaming.

Just seconds later, the dispatcher listened in horror as more shots were fired and the woman on the other end of the line stopped responding.

Unified Police Department PIO Sgt. Aymee Race told People that the woman reported a domestic dispute between a stepfather and son. She told them that there were “threats of a weapon” and that alcohol and drugs were involved.

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When officers arrived at the family home in Kearns, Allred’s son Christian, 30, came running out of the house and told officers that he, his mother, and his sister, 37-year-old Brittany, had all been shot.

The two siblings were transported to a local hospital. As of Tuesday, they were reported to be in stable condition. Tragically, their mother did not survive her injury. Their stepfather also turned the gun on himself, taking his own life.

Police said that they had previously responded to calls from the family home reporting “non-violent domestic violence incidents.”

A GoFundMe fundraiser has been created in Allred’s honor, the page describing her as “a dear friend and coworker who brought warmth and kindness to everyone she met.”

Friends of the deceased mother of two said that she had worked at a Sapp Bros travel stop for 25 years and was a key member of the community.

Her co-worker, Angela Simister, told the outlet that she was aware of the couple’s struggles but never expected this to happen.

“I’ve worked with her for 25 years now, and it’s just heartbreaking every time I go to work and she’s not there,” Simister said. “She deserved so much better. She took care of her kids – she’d do anything for her children.”

“I know that they had been having some struggles. But, I was shocked that it went that far.”

Christian, who was said to be in stable condition, spoke to local outlet KSTU, recounting the moments before the tragedy occurred.

“It didn’t dawn on me until probably the second or third bullet hit me that he was shooting at me,” Christian said. “At that point, it was just about taking cover and getting him away from my family.”

Utah Jazz (21-59, 15th in the Western Conference) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (52-29, fourth in the Western Conference)

Los Angeles; Sunday, 8:30 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Utah travels to Los Angeles looking to break its nine-game road skid.

The Lakers are 32-19 in conference games. Los Angeles is eighth in the Western Conference with 14.8 fast break points per game led by LeBron James averaging 5.7.

The Jazz are 12-39 in Western Conference play. Utah is 5-8 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.

The Lakers average 11.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.5 fewer makes per game than the Jazz give up (15.3). The Jazz average 12.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.2 fewer makes per game than the Lakers allow.

The teams play for the fourth time this season. The Lakers won the last meeting 143-135 on Dec. 19, with Luka Doncic scoring 45 points in the win.

TOP PERFORMERS: James is scoring 20.9 points per game with 6.1 rebounds and 7.1 assists for the Lakers. Deandre Ayton is averaging 10.7 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 66.7% over the last 10 games.

John Konchar is scoring 4.3 points per game and averaging 4.1 rebounds for the Jazz. Ace Bailey is averaging 14.7 points and 3.7 rebounds over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Lakers: 6-4, averaging 114.1 points, 40.4 rebounds, 27.6 assists, 9.8 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 52.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 112.8 points per game.

Jazz: 0-9, averaging 120.6 points, 44.1 rebounds, 31.9 assists, 10.0 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 48.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 134.0 points.

INJURIES: Lakers: Austin Reaves: out (rib), Jaxson Hayes: out (foot), Luka Doncic: out (hamstring).

Jazz: Lauri Markkanen: out (hip), Isaiah Collier: out (hamstring), Keyonte George: out (leg), Walker Kessler: out for season (shoulder), Jusuf Nurkic: out for season (nose), Brice Sensabaugh: out (rest), Kyle Filipowski: out (back), Elijah Harkless: out (hamstring), Jaren Jackson Jr.: out for season (knee).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.