Overview
- The Utah House voted unanimously to authorize the $30 million purchase, drawing on a previously established rainy-day account for water acquisitions.
- State officials say closing is expected early next week after Utah won the Delaware bankruptcy auction, outbidding LiMag interests tied to the plant’s owner.
- Assets include about 4,500 acres on the lake’s southwest shore and water rights roughly equal to the volume of Deer Creek Reservoir.
- Regulators now take on remediation at a site flagged in a 2023 study for chlorine and bromine emissions and targeted in a 2024 state lawsuit over a potentially leaking waste pond.
- Leaders indicate they may permit mineral extraction only with non‑depletive technologies as they align the site with broader lake-restoration efforts, including prior water-lease deals and the Compass Minerals agreement.