Jake Serago

Water Resource Engineer

Utah Division of Water Resources

Bio:

Jake is a water resource engineer with 10 years of professional hydrologic and hydraulic modeling experience. At the Utah Division of Water Resources he is always looking for opportunities to pair his expertise with citizen involvement to create lasting and adaptable solutions to his civilization's water resource challenges. He lives in Salt Lake City and enjoys adventuring about on his bicycle through the city (please don't hit him), and around Great Salt Lake.

Title: A Water Resource Study of the Whole Great Salt Lake Basin

Abstract: This year the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) has WaterSMART funding available through the Basin Study program for the first time in 5 years. Basin Studies are collaborative planning efforts cost-shared with non-Federal partners to first assess water supply and demand, then identify strategies to address imbalances. The Utah Division of Water Resources has been working with water conservancy districts, water users associations, irrigation companies, universities and environmental advocate groups in the basin to apply for a Basin Study. This would be an enormous task, never before undertaken, but such a study must be done because only collaborative efforts can attain meaningful solutions to a sickening Lake and reduced water supply. Water resource management in the Great Salt Lake Basin is complex, collective effects on the Lake from upstream activities are poorly understood, and upstream water users struggle to understand how best to mitigate adverse impacts to Great Salt Lake while meeting the needs of water users, making it a perfect basin for this type of study.