Great Salt Lake InterFaith Alliance has great information and action items
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| Aerial view of nearly gone Great Salt Lake from Deseret News interview highlighted here: https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/07/knowledge-great-salt-lake-collapse-is.html |
NOTES: GSL Interfaith Action (GSLIA) - monthly meeting - Wednesday, July 1⋅7:00 – 8:30pm
If you have changes or additions to the minutes, or thoughts on the topics, please let us know.
We appreciate your input!
Becky Burrage and Joan Gregory
1. Attendees - Micah Mahaney(Mt Olympus Presbyterian), Mike Maxwell (LDS Earth Stewardship), Becky Burrage (Holladay United Church of Christ), Joan Gregory (First Unitarian Church of SLC), Helene (Wasatch Minyan), Susanne – Cache Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Logan; Patrick Belmont (Water scientist, Candidate for Utah State Legislature to represent Logan and Richmond, District 3); Rebecca Hunt (Unity Church)
2. Update on the opposition movement to the proposed DHS Immigration Facility next to Great Salt Lake (with negative environmental outcomes likely)
Please read and consider signing this the Utah Values Coalition's Statement of Utah Values – Protecting Our Community from Harmful Detention Centers. https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org
List of faith-based communities and faith leaders who have signed on: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/about-us and Community based organizations
Letters from faith leaders are highlighted: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/letters
You may ask: Wasn't there just a NYTimes article saying: ICE Spent $700 Million on 7 Warehouses. Now It Wants to Get Rid of Them. (Gift Article)
Yes, that is positive news worth celebrating and we are hopeful that this detention center will revert back to warehouse/industrial use. However, until we know that it is not being sold to a private prison contractor, and no other detention center is being planned, we are proceeding with active opposition. Our aim is to protect our vulnerable neighbors and friends for as long as DHS/ICE continues its operations.
Who is the Utah Values Coalition? We are members of the Salt Lake community and we are Utahns who are coming together to say: we have values here in Utah. What is happening by locating an ICE Warehouse Detention Center here goes totally against our Utah values. Those values were the basis of the Utah Compact for Immigration, signed in 2010 and reaffirmed in 2019, which committed Utah's leaders to a set of principles rooted in humanity, fiscal responsibility, the rule of law, and the well-being of families and communities. Those principles did not expire. They are the Utah Way.
We are dedicated to uniting voices across Utah to oppose the proposed mega warehouse ICE detention facility. Our mission is to protect our communities and advocate for humane alternatives that reflect our shared values of compassion and justice.
If you agree, you too can be part of this Coalition by signing onto this statement: https://www.utahvaluescoalition.org/ You may sign on as an individual Utahn, or you may sign on as a Utah faith-based community, community-based organization, or business. Feel free to use this QR code and flyer and this email if you would like to share this sign-on opportunity with others.
We look forward to seeing you join this effort. Once we have a significant number of signatures, we plan to deliver this statement as a letter to Utah Governor Cox and to other Utah elected officials and leaders in our Utah communities.
Questions: utahvaluescoalition@gmail.com - Joan M. Gregory, Convener, Utah Values Coalition
Flyers that you can use to share this action with your congregation: https://tinyurl.com/UVC-QRCodeFlyer
3. Update on the Tooele data center next to GSL.
A Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) backed industrial development in Tooele Valley, enabled by more than $240 million in taxpayer-backed infrastructure financing, has applied for a state permit to discharge concentrated brine from a reverse osmosis water treatment plant into wetlands just 1.6 miles from Great Salt Lake. The discharge would flow directly into Gilbert Bay with no enforceable limits on salt, chloride, or arsenic.
Website for background information from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment: https://www.uphe.org/2026/06/16/help-stop-another-data-center-proposal-tooele/
The comment deadline is July 8. Submitting a comment is straightforward, and every comment matters. Here’s what to do: Send an email to wqcomments@utah.gov Use “Permit UT0026409” as your subject line. In your comment, tell the Division of Water Quality why this permit should not be approved as written, cite the lack of limits on harmful pollutants, the threat to wetlands and Great Salt Lake, and the failure to account for cumulative water impacts in an already over-stressed basin.
More resources if you want to dive deep into this:
-- Listen to Dr. Brian Moench's description of the situation & instructions: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/skdq7r7lzPs
-- The Wrong Place for a Data Center – this is a guide on how taxpayer subsidies are funding industrial development on the edge of Great Salt Lake – Comment Period Open NOW, Closes July 8th.
-- Laws that Hand Utah to Corporations – kiWhat MIDA and UIPA Do – And Why they MUST be Repealed: background information about MIDA and UIPA
-- Tooele Inland Ports: A Data Center on the Shore of Great Salt Lake
-- Patrick Belmont (Logan) - published a piece in Deseret News on the BE data center: https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2026/05/09/the-issue-is-bigger-than-the-data-center/
Many of those same points will likely apply to Tooele.
-- Still hoping to get the faith-based community to speak out at any of these press conferences. The more we can show more diversity in advocacy, the better. Mike made the point that more centrist and conservative leaning folks need to be attracted to speak out about the issues
-- Maybe something we in GSLIA could do here on Pioneer Day?
4. Discussion about distributing our water conservation flyer and GSLIA information.
A Practical Guide to using Less Water for the Benefit of GSL: Outdoor water Stewardship for Faith Communities. See the attachments for the half-page and full-page flyer versions (print-at-home) and the document itself.
5. How to be involved with the August Legislative Interim Session. https://growtheflowutah.org/legislative-outreach/ Also: https://le.utah.gov/ Interesting: https://le.utah.gov/interim/2026/InterimSchedule.pdf <- Notice the schedule of national conferences that this Interim schedule highlights, in particular The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), July 22-24, 2026. This year’s conference aligns with the States 250 initiative, focusing on state-level policies and America250. Often when you hear that a bill is being introduced in legislatures across the country, it is an ALEC bill. Their tag line is: Limited Government • Free Markets • Federalism.
7. Discussion about organizing another Our Sacred Lake event at The Cathedral of the Madeleine. Is this something we want to do again? In the past we have done 3 different events there. Greg asked about an annual event – OK if not as intensive amount of work. How do we get the message of OUR SACRED GREAT SALT LAKE across. We have shown films, done it at the Cathedral. What could we do that would be interesting, touch their hearts, let them realize that the lake is sacred and we need to be stewards of it.
- Mike said Clive Romney has new GSL music he offered to share at an event. (see suggested videos under Announcements).
- Michah: Considering the reverence – representatives from many of the tribes or ceremonial dance. Last year – we had Carl Moore – prayer to the 4 directions. This is a video of last year’s event:
Susanne J. shared this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK51GxDBDjg. This is a great 30-minute interview about the GSL-Abbott and Romney are interviewed.
There is more information about this interview in the following blog post: https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/07/knowledge-great-salt-lake-collapse-is.html
Trips - considering a field trip?? 1.5 hr trip. to Spiral Jetty or Antelope Island to see the new film.
At a park, could you get groups who have direct interaction with GSL (example: work on phragmites removal)– what is important to them to do in GSL – these groups always need volunteers to go out and do things
8. Announcements/volunteering opportunities and events
https://growtheflowutah.org/events/
Films available (per Helene):
- "The Lake," originally premiered at Sundance this past February, will be screened on July 18 at 7:00 pm in SLC at Utah Film Center (Broadway Theater) and on July 19 at 1:00 pm in the Jim Santy Auditorium in the Park City Library.
- "Secrets of Great Salt Lake," is being shown at Antelope Island Visitor center in its new theatre. Not open to the public yet but Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, on July 16 is sponsoring a lecture at 10:00 am followed by the film screening at 10:30 am. It is free, but registration with Osher is required.
(There is a form to fill out on the Antelope Island website if you would like to reserve a time to show the film to "your group.")
9. Leasing unused water-rights in Logan – Susanne said they have not pushed on the GSL issue before, but now it has become a local Logan issue – many more people interested in getting involved for GSL – add the article in our minutes – things that pertain to their issue – comment on draft environmental impact statement – articles and publicity – urge to withdraw this whole plan . We will post ways to become involved in this issue on this website when we learn of opportunities.
https://www.wethepeoplecv.org/2026/06/knowledge-what-does-logan-river.html - https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/06/18/cache-valleys-little-logan-river/
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