2024 Legislature - Water Bills That Passed

There was a long list of water-related bills that were passed during the 2024 session of the Utah Legislature. Below are bills summaries (drafted by the water attorneys at Smith Hartvigsen) about these bills that passed.

HB 11 (2nd Substitute) – Water Efficient Landscaping Requirements
Rep. Doug Owens

House Bill 11 (2nd Substitute) mandates that certain government entities in the Great Salt Lake Basin will not use overhead spray irrigation of a new construction or reconstruction’s landscaped area after May 1, 2024. Despite this restriction, this bill does not restrict overhead spray irrigation on the following land uses: sports fields, parks, amphitheaters, golf courses (including driving ranges and putting greens), cemeteries, and social gathering areas. This bill does not authorize a municipality or county to impose landscaping requirements on school district entities. The purpose of this bill is to send the message that the government is committed to conserving water that can then be used for the Great Salt Lake. This bill is the product of the Legislative Water Development Commission examining and retooling the 2023 Legislative Session’s failed HB 272 (Water Efficient Landscaping Amendments), as it was not examined by the Commission prior to the 2023 Legislative Session.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 42 – Water Rights Publication Amendments
Rep. Joel K. Briscoe

House Bill 42 amends Utah Code section 73-3-6, which addresses the State Engineer’s publication of notice of application to appropriate or change application. The bill allows the State Engineer to confirm a newspaper's publication of a notice of application through electronic means.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 57- Snake Valley Aquifer Advisory Council Amendments
Rep. Walt Brooks

House Bill 57 dissolves the Snake Valley Aquifer Advisory Council by repealing the entirety of Title 63C, Chapter 12 of the Utah Code. The Council was originally established by the legislature in 2009, primarily to deal with the Snake Valley water right filings made by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Because the SNWA water right filings are now a moot issue, the Council is no longer needed. The bill also removes references to the Council from other sections in the Code. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 61 - Water Measuring and Accounting Amendments
Rep. Carl R. Albrecht

House Bill 61 amends Utah Code sections 73-1-21 and 73-2-1. Section 73-1-21 addresses Utah’s overall water policy and section 73-2-1 outlines the State Engineer's powers and duties and the qualifications for those duties. The bill modifies the state water policy to allow for the use of telemetry in water data collection and permits the State Engineer to make rules governing telemetry and water distribution accounting. Finally, the bill also removes outdated language regarding rulemaking authority on preferences of water rights under Section 73-3-21.5, which was repealed in 2023.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 62 (1st Substitute) - Utah Water Ways Amendments
Rep. Doug Owens

House Bill 62 (1st Substitute) amends Utah Code section 79-2-408 to add an additional method for educating the public about water issues. Specifically, the bill permits Utah Water Ways to coordinate with the State Board of Education to implement resources and development opportunities to select grades in kindergarten through grade twelve of the public school system. These education opportunities may not include information on human-caused climate change. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 206 - Columbia Interstate Compact Amendments
Rep. Thomas W. Peterson

House Bill 206 withdraws Utah’s ratification of the Columbia Interstate Compact and repealed several Utah Code sections relating to the Compact. The Compact was never ratified by the other states, so there is no reason for Utah’s ratification to remain in place.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 249 - Utah Legal Personhood Amendments
Rep. Walt Brooks

House Bill 249 prohibits Utah governmental entities, including courts, the Legislature, and other entities with adjudicatory or rulemaking authority, from granting or recognizing legal personhood in artificial intelligence, inanimate objects, bodies of water, land, real property, atmospheric gases, astronomical objects, weather, plants, and nonhuman animals or other taxa. While the list of creatures and things that cannot receive legal personhood is diverse, the impetus of the bill is a trend in some other states and countries to claim legal personhood for animals or bodies of water. Groups such as Save Our Great Salt Lake spoke against the bill, as it would foreclose the possibility of granting or recognizing personhood in the Great Salt Lake.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 275 (2nd Substitute) - Water Amendments
Rep. Casey Snider

House Bill 275 (2nd Substitute) amends Utah Code section 57-8a-231 so that HOAs cannot require a property owner to install or keep lawn or turf. The bill also amends Utah Code section 73-5-8 to require first class cities and water conservancy districts within the Great Salt Lake watershed to provide water use data “electronically in a particular format” to the Division of Water Rights. Finally, the bill amends Utah Code section 73-10-34.5 regarding who may receive a State grant for water meter projects. The law previously required secondary water providers to meter every connection, but allowed for some secondary water providers to only meter at strategic points instead of metering every connection. The law provided three circumstances under which a secondary water provider only had to meter at strategic points. In two of the circumstances, however, the secondary water provider was not eligible to receive State grants to install the meters. This bill allows the grants to go to a secondary water provider under any of the three circumstances. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 280 (5th Substitute) - Water Related Changes
Rep. Casey Snider

House Bill 280 (5th Substitute) changes how Utah funds water infrastructure projects. Under the bill, “relevant agencies” with water-related missions, such as the Divisions of Water Resources, Drinking Water, and Water Quality, among others, will develop annual water infrastructure plans beginning on June 30, 2025, that will describe needed water projects that fall within their jurisdiction. Once adopted, these relevant agencies will submit their plans to Utah’s Water Development Coordinating Council, which consists of representatives from the Division of Water Resources, the Water Quality Board, the Drinking Water Board, the Housing and Community Development Division, the Treasurer’s office, the Department of Agriculture and Food, and, as amended by HB 280, an individual appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate who is employed by a water conservancy district with asset management obligations. Using the plans submitted by the relevant agencies, the Council will then develop a “unified water infrastructure plan,” that will identify water projects needed to “maintain the reliable supply of safe and clean water.” The Council will adopt the first unified plan by March 1, 2026, which it will update at least every four years. Once created, the Division of Water Resources will be required to reference the unified plan in the state water plan. 

The Council will also work in consultation with the relevant agencies to develop a written process for ranking and prioritizing water infrastructure projects that are or will be funded with state money beginning in fiscal year 2027. This process will also include several criteria requiring consideration of hardships, the public interest (including conservation and the protection of public health and safety), the use of state funding to match federal funding, and local entity consultation. H.B. 280 also requires the Council to seek and consider public input in developing the prioritization process.  

The bill further requires the Utah Division of Water Resources to study and make several recommendations by October 31, 2024, regarding: (1) which funds or accounts used to finance water infrastructure projects should be tied to the planning and prioritization process; (2) whether any funds or accounts should be consolidated; and (3) whether changes to the membership of the Council are needed. In addition, by October 31, 2025, the Division will make recommendations about whether to impose a new fee to fund water infrastructure projects identified in the unified water infrastructure projects, including who will pay the fee, how the fee will be calculated and collected, where the generated revenue will be deposited, whether the fee should be a tax, how the revenue should be spent, the affordability for end users, and how to ensure revenue is distributed equitably statewide. 

To help fund these efforts, the bill creates a new “Water Infrastructure Fund” to provide money to help pay for the Council’s water infrastructure prioritization activities, the studies H.B. 280 requires, and to provide loans and grants for projects prioritized in the unified water infrastructure plan. The fund will consist of appropriations from the Legislature, money received from the federal government, grants and donations from the public, and loan repayments. The State Treasurer will invest money in the fund and interest and earnings from those investments will be deposited into the fund.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 295 - Produced Water Amendments
Rep. Steven J. Lund

House Bill 295 came from the oil and gas industry. Many oil and gas wells also produce water, thus the term “produced water.” Due to the great depths where oil and gas are found in Utah, the produced water is brackish and is considered a waste product by the oil and gas producer. However, in Utah, “all waters of this state, whether above or under the ground, are declared to be public, subject to the existing rights to the use thereof.” Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-1(1). Thus, under current law, to make any beneficial use of produced water would require a water right issued by the State Engineer. One beneficial use of produced water gaining popularity is to reinject the water back into the oil and gas bearing strata under high pressure, in the process of hydraulic fracturing, or as it is commonly known, “fracking.” Fracking is widely used in Utah’s oil and gas fields to increase production, most commonly in the production of natural gas. The fractures created free gas from the rock. Under current law a water right is needed to use produced water for fracking, which is a beneficial use of water. The alternative is to purchase municipal water for fracking.

Beginning May 1, 2024, the bill creates an exception for produced water which will no longer be subject to administration and control by the State Engineer or Utah’s Water Code (Title 73). Instead, produced water will be governed by Title 40, Chapter 12 of the Utah Code. Title 40 addresses mining and authorizes the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining (“Board’) to govern production of oil and gas. Under new Chapter 12, rather than the State Engineer, the Board will regulate the nonconsumptive beneficial use of produced water. The nonconsumptive use of produced water will be neither an appropriation nor waste of water. No water right will be needed to put produced water to any nonconsumptive beneficial use.

Disposal of produced water and fracking are already regulated by the Board under Utah Code section 40-6-5 and Rule R649. This new law will consolidate the regulation of produced water by the Board. Limiting the use of produced water without a water right to nonconsumptive use is intended to avoid abuse of this exemption from water right regulation and provides an important “sideboard” or “guard rail” to protect water users. A larger concern for the water community is whether this exemption is simply an isolated encroachment or is the first step of a slippery slope of future exemptions from water right regulations. If it is the former, creation of this exception will create little impact on water right holders and users. However, if this is simply the first of such exceptions, the regulation of water under Title 73 and by the State Engineer may become compromised.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

HB 453 (4th Substitute) - Great Salt Lake Revisions
Rep. Casey Snider

House Bill 453 (4th Substitute) directs the State Engineer to develop a distribution management plan by October 1, 2025, for “Great Salt Lake water rights,” which the bill defines as “a water right that allows for the diversion of surface water or groundwater from a point below the Great Salt Lake meander line and that contemplates the recovery of salts or another mineral or element.” In other words, the distribution management plan will focus on water rights used in mineral extraction within Great Salt Lake and will not focus on water rights used for other purposes that have points of diversion upstream of Great Salt Lake. 

Through the plan, the State Engineer will establish requirements for the measurement, quantification, and reporting of diversions, depletions, and return flows associated with extractive water rights in the Lake in accordance with “the principles of prior appropriation and multiple use sustained yield.” 

To accompany the plan, the bill requires the State Engineer to establish a priority schedule that apportions extractive water rights based on their relative priority to one another, as well as an apportionment schedule and distribution accounting tool. The bill also requires the State Engineer to prohibit extractive rights from diverting water rights that the Divisions of Wildlife; State Parks; and Forestry, Fire and State Lands deliver to Great Salt Lake under Utah’s instream flow statute, Utah Code section 73-3-30. In adopting the plan, the State Engineer may allow water users to participate in voluntary arrangements that compensate or mitigate for the use of extractive rights. 

In addition to the plan, the bill increases the severance tax on operators from 2.6% to 7.8%, with some exceptions. Among other things, it also requires the royalty agreements issued by the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands to include standards to protect Great Salt Lake and will require extraction companies to measure their water use and test and report the salinity of any water they discharge. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 18 (1st Substitute) - Water Modifications
Sen. Scott D. Sandall

Senate Bill 18 (1st Subsitute) is a follow-up to Senate Bill 277, a bill passed late in the 2023 Legislative Session, which allowed water users who install agricultural water optimization projects to file applications with the Division of Water Rights to put the “saved water”—the now-excess water which was diverted and consumed under the more wasteful irrigation system—to another beneficial use. SB 18 clarifies the definition of saved water as well as the administrative procedures to secure its separate use and protect it from forfeiture. It also clarifies that saved water cannot increase the depletion of the underlying water right.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 39 - Water Shareholder Amendments
Sen. Scott D. Sandall

Senate Bill 39 amends Utah Code section 73-3-3.5 regarding shareholder change applications. Previously, if a shareholder filed a proposed change application with a water company, the water company had 120 days to respond if it was a permanent change application and 60 days to respond if it was a temporary change application. Now, a water company has 120 days to respond, irrespective of whether the change application is permanent or temporary. The bill also has some minor clean-up language, which mainly clarifies when the term “it” in the statute is referring to a water company or to a court

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 77 - Water Rights Restricted Account Amendments
Sen. Scott D. Sandall

Senate Bill 77 modifies the purposes for which money in the Water Rights Restricted Account may be used. The bill adds that the Division of Water Rights may use the Account to pay for installing, operating, and maintaining water measurement infrastructure and for sharing in the costs of installing stream gauges (with the U.S. Geological Survey).

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 125 (1st Substitute) - Secondary Water Amendments
Sen. David P. Hinkins

Senate Bill 125 (1st Substitute) clarifies the secondary water metering requirements that have been imposed by the legislature in the past couple of years. Specifically, it states that secondary water suppliers in the Great Salt Lake Basin do not need to meter every connection but must meter at strategic points, even if they have fewer than 1,000 connections. The bill does not define what a “strategic point” is, but states that secondary water suppliers must submit an application with the State Engineer regarding where it believes the strategic points are, and that that State Engineer will review and approve where the strategic points are that must be metered. Senate Bill 125 goes into effect on May 1, 2024.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 145 (2nd Substitute) - Utility Easement Amendments
Sen. Daniel McCay

Senate Bill 145 (2nd Substitute) creates a statewide association to manage requests to utility operators to mark utility facilities before any excavation. An excavator must provide notice to a utility operator before beginning any excavation and if damage occurs, the excavator must contact the utility operator and stop work immediately. Senate Bill 145’s new association will overlap with the already-created blue stakes, but the new association is more focused on reviewing the design process and how it will affect utility operators. Senate Bill 145 goes into effect on May 1, 2024.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 211 (1st Substitute) - Generational Water Infrastructure Amendments
Sen. Stuart Adams

Senate Bill 211 (1st Substitute), which was sponsored by Speaker Schultz in the House, creates the Water District Water Development Council comprised of the four largest water conservancy districts in Utah—Weber Basin, Jordan Valley, Central Utah, and Washington County—and the Director of the Division of Water Rights. The new council is tasked with planning for “generational water infrastructure” within the four districts’ service areas and reporting their findings and recommendations annually to the Governor and Legislature. The council cannot establish policy for the state, control money to fund water infrastructure, or own or operate water infrastructure. The bill also creates a new state officer, the “Utah water agent,” who is appointed by the Governor to a six-year term with the advice and consent of the Senate. Outside of the Bear River and Colorado River drainages, the Utah water agent assumes the responsibilities previously assigned to the Board of Water Resources to represent Utah in interstate negotiations. In particular, the Utah water agent is responsible for exploring and negotiating opportunities for interstate water importation projects. The bill was appropriated $3 million in one-time funding and $1 million per year in ongoing funding. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 242 - Utah Lake Modifications
Sen. Michael K. McKell

Senate Bill 242 repeals the Utah Lake Restoration Act (Title 65A, Chapter 15 of the Utah Code). The Restoration Act was originally passed in 2018 and allowed for the possibility of the State to exchange public land for restoration purposes. The bill also removes a reference to the Restoration Act in the current Utah Lake Authority Act, which was passed in 2022.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SB 270 (1st Substitute) - Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake Study Amendments
Sen. Curtis S. Bramble

Senate Bill 270 (1st Substitute) enacts Utah Code section 65A-10-5, which mandates the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands to conduct a study to enhance the benefits associated with Utah Lake. The Division will examine, among other things, improving the clarity and quality of the water, conserving water resources, removing invasive species, restoring and conserving native fish and other aquatic species, and increasing the suitability for shore birds and waterfowl. The study is to be completed no later than November 1, 2025, and report the findings to the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee. The bill appropriates $1.5 million from the general fund to pay for the study. It also amends Utah Code section 63I-1-265 to state the Utah Lake Study legislation will be repealed on July 1, 2027. 

To read the full text of the bill, click here.