Overview
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin toured Farmington Bay on Saturday with Utah leaders to see record-low conditions where water is only a few inches deep and muddy lake bed is exposed.
- Zeldin publicly endorsed President Donald Trump’s $1 billion budget request for lake restoration, saying federal, state and local partners must work together to raise levels ahead of the 2034 Olympics.
- The EPA said it will work with Utah this summer to deploy new monitoring equipment, including real-time sensors and an event-triggered passive aerosol sampler to sample dust during storms.
- Conservation groups criticized Zeldin’s visit because the EPA is simultaneously proposing a permitting rule they say could let construction start before air permits are issued, while the agency stressed state primacy over air permits under the Clean Air Act.
- Congress must still approve the $1 billion request, and officials said the funding would target water-flow projects, invasive-species removal and infrastructure work to protect public health, wildlife habitat and regional economy.