Is the Great Salt Lake Past the Point of No Return?

Three months ago, we told you the Great Salt Lake was disappearing — and what Utah stood to lose. Today, we ask the harder question: Is anyone actually saving it?

In June, "Deseret Voices" Episode 37 laid out the stakes: toxic dust, billions in health costs, and an ecosystem on the brink. Since then, the lake has dropped even closer to its all-time low — losing 800,000 acre-feet per year despite near-normal precipitation. A new commissioner has been appointed. A president has promised a billion dollars. And only a fraction has arrived.

In this follow-up episode, host Jane Clayson Johnson sits down with three people at the center of the response:

▸ Sen. John Curtis — Utah's Republican senator, who is navigating the gap between a presidential promise and a congressional check, while making the case that saving the lake is an economic imperative as much as an environmental one.

▸ Hannah Freeze — Utah's new Great Salt Lake commissioner, appointed July 2026. A farmer's daughter turned quarterback of the state's multi-agency rescue effort, she brings a five-point federal spending plan and a pilot program where 90 farmers voluntarily lease water to the lake.

▸ Ben Abbott — The BYU ecologist who returned to “Deseret Voices” with a blunt update: only 26% of the lake is still functioning, saving a saline lake is something no country has ever done, and the restoration goal will require a 40% reduction in water consumption.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Where Trump's $1 billion Great Salt Lake promise actually stands — and why Congress hasn't written the check.

• The difference between stabilizing the lake (250,000 acre-feet) and restoring it (1 million acre-feet per year).

• How Alpine City, Utah, voluntarily cut water use 12% in a single year — with no mandate.

• Why Utah's farmers wrote their own water-leasing legislation instead of waiting for regulation.

• What Iran's Lake Urmia — where the government promised restoration five times before the lake disappeared — tells us about Utah's odds.

• The 30 to 70 annual dust events now coming off the exposed lakebed, and the $1 million air-quality monitoring network going live this fall.

• Whether the Endangered Species Act or EPA protections could trigger a forced federal response.

• Ben Abbott's candid assessment that saving the lake is "a long shot" — and Sen. Curtis' pioneer-ancestors rebuttal.

This conversation is about more than a lake. It's about whether a community can live within its means, protect the vulnerable, and do something no one else in the world has managed — before time runs out.

If you haven't listened to Episode 37, start there: https://www.deseret.com/video/2026/06/26/deseret-voices-episode-37-the-real-cost-of-losing-the-great-salt-lake/