Restoring the Waters of Life

An interview with the ecologist Ben Abbott

Recently, the Utah Monthly had the chance to sit down with Ben Abbott, an associate professor of ecosystem ecology at Brigham Young University. Below, Abbott talks about his efforts to preserve local bodies of water, resistance to those efforts, and things Utah residents can do to protect the state’s unique ecosystems.

First off, can you explain what sort of research you do?

I am an ecosystem ecologist. I make sure we have a sustainable relationship with how much water we’re using, how we’re using it, when we’re using it, and in what ways. 

Can you explain about the whole lawsuit fiasco with Utah Lake?

In 2017, a company called Lake Restoration Solutions (LRS) submitted a proposal to the state of Utah that said, if you give us an undetermined amount of land in and around Utah Lake, we will build the world’s largest islands and transform the lake into Lake Tahoe on steroids. The state began considering the project but the problem was that the bed of Utah Lake is protected. It’s called a sovereign land. So it needs to be held in permanent trust for the people of Utah, present and future. Then LRS got two members of the Utah Legislature—Mike McKell and Deidre Henderson—to sponsor a bill that authorized the land transfer in 2018; it was called HB 272, the Utah Lake Restoration Act. From that time on things moved forward, but then because it was such a giant project, it didn’t really go anywhere. It got a lot of news coverage in 2018, a little in 2019 and then the project went dark. So this was a big relief when the project seemed to die. 

But then in 2021, we heard that the project was actually moving forward and it had never stopped trying to build momentum. What was concerning about this was that LRS had meetings with much of the Utah legislative body and everybody seemed to like the proposal. The governor’s office seemed to really be on board with it. We organized a symposium in the summer of 2021 to bring attention to the lake. People tend to think that it’s a heavily polluted and unhealthy water body that is not good for much. But it’s actually a huge success story. The lake is now in recovery from harmful algae blooms and from the near-extinction of its keystone species—the June sucker. In that symposium, we did talk about the island project but we also talked about the amazing other stuff that was going on, and turns out the island folks didn’t appreciate being criticized. We thought that they would hear this information, realize the errors of their ways, and then change the scope of the project. Well, that’s not what happened. They doubled down. They applied for almost a billion dollars in federal loans to fund the project. They had the whole might of Utah’s government behind this project and were trying to push it forward. And they had even scheduled a press conference with the governor in December of 2021 to announce that this was a public-private partnership and that the state was all in. 

We learned about that in November—when I say “we,” [I mean] a group of concerned citizens spearheaded by Conserve Utah Valley. And Conserve Utah Valley is a really important player in this whole story. They are a group of local citizens that really care about sustainable growth in the valley. So I asked Conserve Utah Valley, “Will you guys help us get the word out?” And it was so amazing to see citizens from every walk of life come together. People saying wait a minute we don’t want Utah Lake sold and this experimental construction project to move forward. We want to restore the lake. We started a petition and eventually gathered about 10,000 signatures. I circulated a letter to a bunch of researchers and managers who worked in this field and outlined some of the big concerns with the project. For example, they didn’t have any PhD ecologists on the project. They just had some of the people who had worked on island dredging in Dubai. Those projects were huge ecological disasters. 

So we brought all of these groups together and we got a hold of the governor’s office and the governor’s office pulled back from the project. They canceled the press conference that was scheduled. Then, once again, we thought we had slayed the dragon, that the project was dead, and that was in December of 2021. 

Just a couple weeks later, in early January of 2022, I was preparing my remarks for the first Utah Lake Summit. This was a community meeting where our representatives and senators were inviting the public to learn about and talk about Utah Lake. So I was excited, thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase what was going on and also LRS was going to be there, so we could talk through things. And I got a call from my wife, who said “Hey, somebody just dropped a lawsuit off at our house.” They were claiming I had lied about their project and that I owed them $3 million dollars for the damages that I had done to their project. It was just so outlandish and felt kind of like a threat—“Hey, you better not say anything mean about us tonight in our first public encounter.” So, we showed up there. We gave our presentations. After the meeting, I went up to LRS and said “I got your care package today, I’m happy to talk with you about this because if there are any differences I’m happy to hear your side.” And they refused that offer. So that ended up leading to a multi-year legal battle. We countersued in February and then it was in January of the next year, so eleven months later, that the judge agreed with our claim that this was a SLAPP suit (strategic lawsuit against public participation). And the judge ordered them to pay my attorney the expenses they had incurred and also said they would likely need to pay me personal damages but that that part of it would need to go to a trial. Soon after that, rather than pay those fees, the other debts that they had racked up from their own lawyers and environmental consultants, and others, they declared bankruptcy. And that’s where we are today, they are in those bankruptcy proceedings.

Does this mean Utah Lake is safe and protected today?

This is just one example of the many crazy ideas that have been and continue to be brought up about Utah Lake. So, the city of Lehi, just on Tuesday (November 14, 2023), their city council voted to approve the addition of a 6–8 lane highway across the lake—the north part of the lake—to their master plan. Also, some local politicians are talking about dredging a big portion of the lake and filling in one of the natural bays. So no, there are still a ton of different threats to Utah Lake. Until our community learns what is going on and what the lake needs, I am worried we are going to be stuck in the constant cycle of whack-a-mole.

How do we save the Great Salt Lake?

If we compare the lake to its long-term average size and volume we have lost two-thirds of the size and three-quarters of the volume. It is not like some future collapse of the lake, we have an ongoing collapse of the Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake needs more water. We have diverted more than half of the lake’s natural inflow and consume it mainly through agriculture but also through our lawns and industrial activities like mining. We need to reduce water waste. We need to optimize our agriculture and we need to update our water laws so that we are valuing water. Specifically, we are launching this initiative called Grow the Flow, which is trying to bring together 100,000 people to focus on the lake. From all over the region, not just the Salt Lake Valley. We are helping to understand the implications of different policies and help lawmakers write good laws. Also, help complete research to answer these questions about the lake’s hydrology, chemistry, and ecology. 

What advice would you give those who are anxious about the future because of climate change?

I find that when we read about these problems and watch them happening in slow motion it can be kinda really anxiety-inducing and bring a lot of grief and fear. There are high stakes for many of these issues, so the correct way to deal with that stress isn’t to pretend like there’s not a problem. I have found that as we organize and we act it brings so much hope because you realize there is unity around these issues. There are real solutions that can help move the needle and there are billions of people worldwide thinking about climate change that are working today to fix this problem. Join that community rather than just stay isolated online and read about it or listen to it. Getting plugged into specific communities is helpful; there is a group called the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) that has a great presence throughout the United States. There are also a lot of other groups. I participate in two religious organizations; one is called the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance and the other is Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship. You get so much support and joy and refreshment from that kind of stuff, that we just desperately need. 

Who are some environmental writers that we should all be reading?

I love Robin Wall Kimmerer; she is a Potawatomi Indian who has written a lot about bringing together traditional ecological knowledge and scientific ecological knowledge. Also love George Handley, he is an environmental theologian and amazing writer who speaks about the Christian and specifically the Latter-day Saint faith tradition. I like Thomas Merton, a Catholic writer, he was a monk and has written a lot about our relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world around us. I love Catherin Hayhoe, she is an evangelical Christian writer and climate scientist who has written a lot about these issues. I just recently read Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized and I thought it had a lot of implications for these environmental issues. I also really liked Anand Giridharadas’s book Winners Take All, which is about economic inequality and democracy as it relates to sustainable development. Leea Stokes, a sociologist, wrote a book called Short Circuiting Energy Policy and it is very technical but I found it to be extremely eye-opening in regards to how we can organize at the community level and get stuff done.