Chair
Bear River Commission
Bio:
Jody Williams practices water law at the Salt Lake law firm of Holland & Hart. She has spent her entire legal career specializing as a water rights lawyer, representing clients in acquiring, managing, protecting and using their water rights. The old adage, attributed to Mark Twain, that “Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” doesn’t readily apply to Jody. She is respected throughout the west as a collaborative problem solver of complex water rights issues. Her deep knowledge of how water works enables her to create practical solutions to disputes.
Jody currently serves as the Federal Commissioner and Chair of the Bear River Commission and has specialized in water issues in the Bear River Basin her entire career. Jody also serves on the Utah Water Task Force, reviewing water legislation and working toward solutions on crucial water issues. She previously was appointed by two US Presidents to the Utah Reclamation Mitigation Conservation Commission, a federal agency responsible for mitigating environmental impacts from developing Utah’s Colorado River apportionment.
Title: A Healthy Lake by 2034, the Impossible Dream?
Abstract: Great Salt Lake’s decline continues to create new stakeholders, generating new ideas and creative approaches to bringing water to the lake. Our legislators have dug into the problems, changing state policy and appropriating millions of dollars to incentivize water delivery. The Bear River is the largest tributary to Great Salt Lake, and both stakeholders and policymakers increasingly are looking to maximize its contributions. While the Bear is a working river, Utah shares it with Idaho and Wyoming under the Bear River Compact. All three states have large water apportionments, and Utah should not assume that its sister states share prioritization of Great Salt Lake recovery as the highest use of Bear River water.
