A billboard campaign tracking the water levels of the Great Salt Lake has returned to traffic routes in Salt Lake and Davis Counties. According to an October 7 statement, the billboard returns as the lake's volume has fallen to 29.7% full, down from 37.5% when the campaign first launched in early 2025.
The lake's natural volume is 4,207 feet, but currently, more than 57% or 1,227.5 square miles of the lakebed is exposed. Only 26% of the lake's natural area remains within the healthy salinity range required to support its ecology. Dr. Ben Abbott, a BYU ecologist and executive director of the nonprofit Grow the Flow, stated that the next several months are critical for the lake's future and emphasized that the lake will only recover if restoration becomes a political and public priority.
The billboard tracker will rotate through locations along I-15 and I-215 from Lehi to North Salt Lake to provide real-time status updates. Samantha Hawkins, communications director for Grow the Flow, said the visibility helps build the public support necessary to advance practical solutions for state leaders. Potential risks of the lake's decline include toxic dust threatening 2.5 million Utahns, loss of wildlife habitat, and impacts to the ski industry due to declining lake-effect snow. Economists estimate that restoration could require between $2 billion and $10 billion.
While Governor Spencer Cox committed in September 2025 to restoring the lake to a healthy range by the 2034 Olympic games, the Great Salt Lake Strike Team estimates that an additional 1 million acre-feet of water per year is needed to provide a 70% chance of reaching a healthy level by 2054. This estimate extends 20 years beyond the governor's stated goal.
For more information regarding the lake level tracker or ways to assist in restoration efforts, the public can visit GrowTheFlowUtah.org.
