Utah’s Olympic deadline fuels bold plan to refill Great Salt Lake by 2034

Utah aims to refill the shrinking Great Salt Lake by 2034—coinciding with Salt Lake City’s Olympic Games—through policy reforms, water-right transfers, and philanthropy led by Josh Romney; the effort has broad support but faces enormous hurdles, including securing roughly 800,000 acre-feet of water annually, overcoming over-allocated rights, and financing projects that may cost hundreds of millions of dollars, all while drought and toxic dust risks loom.