05/13/2026
Water is on all our minds amidst this dry year.
The "Visualize Water in the Great Salt Lake Basin" display is still up at the Salt Lake County Government Center, and it does something simple and powerful: it turns big, hard-to-grasp water data into jars of marbles you can see and count.
Each light blue marble represents 10,000 acre-feet of water. The jars show where the Great Salt Lake's water comes from, where it gets used or diverted before it ever arrives, and what the future looks like if we stay on our current path. The baseline scenario gives the lake a longshot chance at returning to healthy levels, roughly only a 1% chance over the long-term.
But there is also a portion of this exhibit that focuses on solutions that the state and regional partners are making which includes Salt Lake County. Salt Lake County's own water strategies have their own jars, with a smaller scale where 1 marble = 1 acre-foot. Outdoor watering programs, riparian restoration, landscape transformations. Every marble and every drop counts!
We are grateful for everyone who has stopped by to take a look and hope everyone has the chance to come visit and to look at ways we can all can save water!
Learn more at SLCo.to/water
