Why Trump needs to spend $1 billion on Nice Salt Lake : NPR

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures North America At its peak, Nice Salt Lake, situated proper exterior the state's capital of Salt Lake Metropolis, was larger than the state of Delaware, masking roughly 2,300 sq. miles, with a thriving ecosystem and the principle cause Utah claimed to have "the best snow on Earth." Now, resulting from a extreme water scarcity attributable to extreme water consumption and lackluster winters, the lake is a shadow of what it as soon as was.

It has been labeled Utah's "environmental nuclear bomb" and it has the eye of the president of the US.

"Crucial to avoid wasting The Nice Salt Lake in Utah. That is an Environmental hazard that have to be labored on, IMMEDIATELY — It's of large curiosity to me," Trump wrote on Feb. 21 on Fact Social.

He ended the submit with a twist on his trademark slogan, "MAKE 'THE LAKE' GREAT AGAIN!"

However a person from New York Metropolis did not conveniently bump into an enormous, dying, salty lake situated within the arid mountain west. The difficulty landed in entrance of Trump as a result of somebody in his internal circle gave him a nudge, which led to a gathering and the possibility to do one thing no nation has ever achieved – the profitable restoration of a terminal saline lake.

The survival of the lake – the most important of its type within the Western Hemisphere – has been a precedence for Utah leaders over the past a number of years. However they knew it could not conquer the colossal job by itself. That is why Utah, a state that prides itself on sovereignty and small-government, is looking for federal assist to revive a landmark that's culturally, environmentally and economically very important to the area.

"If we're capable of pull off this saline lake rescue, it would really be a world first," mentioned Ben Abbott, an ecology professor at Brigham Younger College.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5724x3815+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2F80%2Fcff026a649579a6db10d2af42858%2Fgettyimages-2270443009.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5724x3815+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2F80%2Fcff026a649579a6db10d2af42858%2Fgettyimages-2270443009.jpg" class="img" alt="A dead carp lies on the banks of the Great Salt Lake on April 08, 2026 near Syracuse, Utah." loading="lazy"/> A lifeless carp lies on the banks of the Nice Salt Lake on April 08, 2026 close to Syracuse, Utah. Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures cover caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures The assembly

Utah's Republican Gov. Spencer Cox walked into the White Home on a Monday in late February with a pitch to the president: be a part of Utah within the struggle to avoid wasting Nice Salt Lake.

The day earlier than Cox hopped on a airplane to Washington D.C. for the Nationwide Governors Affiliation convention and White Home dinner, he acquired a cellphone name, mentioned Joel Ferry, govt director of the Utah division of pure assets.

"He obtained a name from the White Home saying, 'Hey, President Trump want to meet with you and some different governors. Convey a few your prime points you guys can focus on,'" mentioned Ferry. Ferry wasn't on the assembly however as one in every of Cox's closest advisors on the lake, he helped the governor put together the pitch to the president.

It was a monumental second for the state of Utah. Cox introduced the issue of Nice Salt Lake to the president's doorstep.

What was as soon as water lies greater than a thousand sq. miles of uncovered lakebed. The parched playa is crammed with heavy metals and toxins, similar to arsenic, that pose critical respiratory well being dangers to roughly 2.5 million individuals. The poisonous mud floats to neighboring states, similar to Wyoming and Idaho throughout robust wind occasions. It is a main supply of fertilizer used to develop tree nuts. Vital minerals, similar to lithium and magnesium are mined from the lake.

Its salty waters additionally maintain as much as 50% of the world's brine shrimp provide, which is the first protein supply for the farmed fish and shrimp consumed at eating places and residential eating tables globally. Thousands and thousands of migratory birds pay a go to to Nice Salt Lake yearly and it helps a whole ecosystem that has been on the precipice of collapse for years as a result of it fails to keep up satisfactory water ranges.

The lake's main water supply comes from Utah's snowpack. Throughout dangerous snow years – and 2026 was Utah's worst snowfall on report – the lake suffers extra. Water from the three principal tributaries that feed into Nice Salt Lake is usually diverted for different functions earlier than it ever makes its solution to the lake.

"For the previous two years now, we have been engaged on a federal ask," mentioned Abbott. The BYU professor research saline lakes and can also be the director of Develop the Stream, an advocacy group centered round water conservation and shepherding water to Nice Salt Lake.

Environmental stewardship is not one thing Trump campaigned on so these lobbying for the lake knew they wanted one other solution to enchantment to the president.

Since returning to workplace, Trump has stripped billions of {dollars} in local weather analysis, rolled again environmental laws on emissions, incentivized corporations to ditch renewable vitality tasks and has canceled billions of {dollars} in authorised funding for clear vitality tasks. He is known as local weather change a "hoax" and regularly touts the U.S. is flushed with oil due to the "drill child drill" mindset.

Trump did not invite Cox inside his dwelling on his personal volition. One good friend to the president obtained the ball rolling – Mark Burnett.

The previous govt producer of NBC's The Apprentice, the truth TV present starring Trump, is now particular envoy of the UK underneath the Trump administration. And he's a Nice Salt Lake fan. He's a Utah transplant, a board member of Develop the Stream and concerned in varied different organizations targeted on saving Nice Salt Lake.

"So Mark and others have been speaking with the federal authorities in regards to the want for this coordination," Abbott mentioned.

Whereas Abbott suggestions his hat to Burnett for beginning the dialog, Cox is the one who laid out the specifics to Trump in-person about why he ought to put money into the lake.

Cox declined NPR's interview request however Ferry is without doubt one of the individuals who prepped the governor forward of the assembly. Although, Ferry says Cox did not want a lot prepping. Nice Salt Lake is a matter Utah leaders have been working to resuscitate for practically a decade; Cox knew the speaking factors.

"It was actually simply telling the story," Ferry mentioned, "It is the most important lake west of the Mississippi. And it's in decline. It's disappearing. It's one thing that we are able to, if we put sufficient assets in direction of it and we do sufficient, we are able to change the trajectory."

From Ferry's perspective, the message resonated with Trump. The assembly, Ferry mentioned, was initially scheduled for fifteen minutes. It lasted an hour and half. Trump made a dedication in that assembly, Ferry mentioned, to make historical past.

Then, on the Feb. 21 White Home dinner with governors, Trump pointed at Cox and reiterated the promise he made.

"We will reserve it. We're not going to let that go. That's what I name an atmosphere, an actual environmental drawback," Trump instructed the viewers.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/612x417+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F15%2F18%2F09b42614445d8d3b9c5ddda940ad%2Fgettyimages-2270443961-612x612.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/612x417+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F15%2F18%2F09b42614445d8d3b9c5ddda940ad%2Fgettyimages-2270443961-612x612.jpg" class="img" alt="American Avocets walk along the banks of the Great Salt Lake on April 08, 2026 near Syracuse, Utah." loading="lazy"/> American Avocets stroll alongside the banks of the Nice Salt Lake on April 08, 2026 close to Syracuse, Utah. Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures cover caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures The Trump impact

Because the preliminary assembly, Trump has made three mentions of the lake on social media. The latest one, posted on March 10, declared he's the one one who could make it occur.

"I'm additionally saving The Nice Salt Lake, in Utah, which, in a brief time frame, if nothing is finished, may have no water. That is on prime of every part else I'm doing. Solely 'TRUMP' CAN DO IT!," he wrote.

To cease the lake's decline and start restoration, Abbott, the ecologist, mentioned Nice Salt Lake wants between 500,000 to 800,000 acre ft of water yearly. If the aim is to return Nice Salt Lake to what it as soon as was, particularly earlier than Utah welcomes the world again for the 2034 Winter Olympic Video games, Abbott estimates round a million acre ft of water yearly should go to the lake.

"It is an infinite quantity of water," Abbott mentioned. "I do not know what political strategy we'd like, besides that it is obtained to be daring. It is obtained to be adaptive. We have got to attempt one thing new. And we have got to disrupt the established order."

It will even be very costly. So Utah leaders are capitalizing on a Republican president within the White Home and a slender majority in Congress to hopefully get an enormous price range request throughout the end line. Cox instructed Utah reporters in February that he requested for one billion {dollars} in federal funds to assist get water to the lake.

When Cox posed the determine, he mentioned Trump "did not flinch in any respect."

Whereas Utah leaders have been strategizing find out how to get federal funding for years, they had been profitable this time round due to artistic lobbying. The president's 2027 fiscal price range – which seeks cuts in lots of areas similar to well being care and different environmental priorities – contains the total $1 billion funding request for Nice Salt Lake.