---
title: "the bear, the weber, and the jordan"
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-bear-the-weber-and-the-jordan
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-bear-the-weber-and-the-jordan.md
subtitle: "three inflows, one lake, and the water that never arrives"
category: ecosystem-services
---

# the bear, the weber, and the jordan

*three inflows, one lake, and the water that never arrives*

If you looked up the Bear River, start where it ends. It ends in the Great Salt Lake. A Utah State University extension fact sheet puts **Bear River basin streamflow** at about 1,283 thousand acre-feet a year, about **39 percent** of inflow. That is the largest piece, and the Bear is an interstate river: Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah all sit on it before the water reaches the marshes at the northeast end of the lake.

The Weber and the Jordan belong in the same sentence. On this sheet they are the smaller shares. The Weber River basin is about 373 thousand acre-feet, about 11 percent. Jordan/Provo is about 462 thousand acre-feet, about 14 percent. The lake is terminal. The level on it is what these rivers, the rain on the water, and upstream use leave behind.

## three shares on one sheet

The table is the rounded budget from that Utah State University extension fact sheet. Other studies use other years and other gages. This post stays with this sheet.

| inflow or loss | about | share on the sheet |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bear River basin streamflow | 1,283 thousand acre-feet | 39% of inflow |
| Jordan/Provo basin streamflow | 462 thousand acre-feet | 14% |
| Weber River basin streamflow | 373 thousand acre-feet | 11% |
| all gauged tributaries | 2,118 thousand acre-feet | 65% |
| direct precipitation on the lake | 1,077 thousand acre-feet | 33% |
| groundwater | 75 thousand acre-feet | 2% |
| evaporation | 3,217 thousand acre-feet | loss |

1,283 plus 462 plus 373 equals 2,118. On this rounded sheet, the Bear, the Jordan/Provo system, and the Weber are the gauged tributaries. The percentages print as 39, 14, and 11, a point shy of the sheet's 65 percent, because the percentages are rounded. Carry the volumes for a total and the percentages for a share. Rain on the lake is about a third of inflow. Groundwater is about 2 percent.

## the weber is eleven percent

The Weber is about **11 percent** on this fact sheet, about 373 thousand acre-feet a year. It is not 25 percent. Eleven percent is still the river through Ogden, into the lake south of the Bear. Calling it a quarter doubles it on paper and treats the Bear as smaller than this sheet does. If you divert on the Weber, that 11 percent is your share of the same lake budget as the Bear in Cache Valley and the Jordan below Utah Lake.

## the jordan leaves utah lake

The Jordan in this budget is the outlet of Utah Lake. It is not the Jordan River of the Middle East. The Provo River flows in. The Jordan flows out and north through the Salt Lake Valley, past cottonwoods and a trail, and finishes at the south end of the Great Salt Lake. The sheet prints Jordan/Provo as one line because it is one system: about 462 thousand acre-feet, about 14 percent. What the Provo and the lake's other feeders deliver, the Jordan can carry to a lake with no ocean outlet.

The Bear takes up the same last job once it clears the Cache Valley headings and spreads into the northeast marshes. The Weber takes it up once Ogden is behind it. Three arrivals. One lake.

## evaporation is larger than the gauged rivers

Evaporation is about 3,217 thousand acre-feet a year. All gauged tributaries are about 2,118 thousand acre-feet. Evaporation is larger than the rivers. Direct precipitation is about 1,077 thousand acre-feet. Groundwater is about 75 thousand acre-feet. Add the rain and the groundwater to the rivers and, on these rounded figures, inflows sit near evaporation. The rivers alone do not match the air. Rain and groundwater close most of that gap. Subtracting 2,118 from 3,217 is not the recovery target.

Those rivers are feeding a lake that is already low. On Wednesday, 25 September 2026, after the summer drop, the south arm stood at 4,189.7 feet and the north arm at 4,189.6 feet, in the account Carter Williams posted that day for KSL and the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. That is over 8 feet below the state's minimum healthy level, and a little more than a foot above the 2022 record low. What the lake is at that elevation is [what the great salt lake actually is](/guide/what-the-great-salt-lake-actually-is?from=guide). When the water leaves, the bed is [great salt lake dust is the lakebed](/guide/great-salt-lake-dust-is-the-lakebed?from=guide).

## eight hundred thousand a year, four hundred thousand in five

About **800,000 acre-feet a year** is a planning magnitude for the additional sustained inflow that would reach a healthy elevation. Public summaries cite it that way, including figures tied to the Utah Department of Natural Resources and executive director Joel Ferry. It is not a statute, and it is not a row on the USU sheet. Eight hundred thousand acre-feet is 800 thousand acre-feet. The Bear's 1,283 thousand acre-feet is already inside the inflow the sheet counts as arriving. The 800,000 is more water, every year, on top of that arrival. It is not a spare slice of the Bear waiting unused.

Governor Cox has named the 2034 Winter Olympics as the public deadline for a healthy lake. The water in that deadline is still the Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan.

About **400,000 acre-feet** is the 2021–2025 total, not one year. State conservation delivered that sum across those five years, roughly half of a single year of the planning magnitude. Ferry has described the stretch as triage ending and targeted treatment beginning. One planning year is still about twice what those five years gathered.

## newfoundland and the reed are estimates

On 17 September 2026, Hannah Freeze, Great Salt Lake Commissioner, said some estimates for the Newfoundland Basin could add 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet a year, depending on hydrology, by sending trapped water back to the lake. Newfoundland's 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet is Freeze's estimate, not a finished project. The top of that range, in a favorable year, is real water and a slice of an 800,000 acre-foot planning year. The Commissioner's Office is already willing to say it in public. The lake does not have it as a completed delivery.

About 55,000 acres of phragmites stand around the lake. The state's Great Salt Lake FAQ estimates that converting that acreage to native inland saltgrass would conserve 80,000 to 82,000 acre-feet a year. KSL, on 25 September 2026, reported Utah's figure as 82,000 acre-feet from replacing invasive phragmites with native plants. Phragmites at 80,000 to 82,000 acre-feet is the state's estimate for a plant swap, not water already saved.

Freeze has said the reed consumes more water than alfalfa. Alfalfa stays a crop in that sentence. The comparison points at the reed. Ben Stireman, deputy DNR commissioner, said the state has seen over an 80 percent reduction of phragmites from work over the last five years. That sentence is about the plant. It is not a receipt for 80,000 acre-feet already back in the lake.

## who the arrival is for

The living thing these rivers finish in is the Great Salt Lake. Marshes at the Bear's mouth, the brine, and the mounds that work when water covers them all depend on arrival. Brine shrimp need the salinity that elevation sets, which is [what brine shrimp need the lake to be](/guide/what-brine-shrimp-need-the-lake-to-be?from=guide). The mats are [a microbialite is not a water level](/guide/a-microbialite-is-not-a-water-level?from=guide).

If you run a water utility on the Wasatch Front, the Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan/Provo system are already the plant you operate. **Source watershed investment** funds that catchment the way you fund treatment. The [utilities](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake) page is where that work is named.

A certificate, once the rivers are clear, is funding for that living system: water that reaches the Great Salt Lake and remains there. Ensurance funds the condition those rivers leave. It is the funding, and the lake is the living thing. The theme for living water is [rivers and lakes](/rivers-lakes.ensurance?from=guide). The one lake that receives all three is the [Great Salt Lake](/great-salt-lake.basin?from=guide).

Hannah Freeze's Commissioner's Office, the Great Salt Lake Alliance, and the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program already coordinate the count and the partnerships. They are the people doing the work. A second funding layer can sit beside the state's leases and the trust.

If you farm or run a canal on the Bear, especially in Cache Valley, you are on the largest share before it becomes a percentage. Your canal is already on that map. The landowners door is [watershed and hydrology services](/solutions/landowners?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake). The line in ideation, beside the state's lease, is brine hold. [Co-create it](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=great-salt-lake.basin&name=brine%20hold&from=guide); a person reviews it, and the parent agent receives it. Who already aims a portion of water at the lake is the next piece.

:::johnson
**three rivers, one last stop.** The Bear, the Weber, and the Jordan end in the Great Salt Lake. What fails to arrive has nowhere else to finish.

[source watershed investment for utilities →](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake)
:::

## questions the sheet can answer

### where does the bear river end?

In the Great Salt Lake. The Utah State University fact sheet puts Bear River basin streamflow at about 1,283 thousand acre-feet a year, about 39 percent of inflow, the largest share. The Bear is an interstate river: Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah all sit on it before that water reaches the northeast marshes.

### is the weber river 25 percent of the great salt lake?

The Weber is about 11 percent of inflow on this fact sheet, about 373 thousand acre-feet a year. It is not 25 percent. Use 11 for this sheet, and name a different study if you carry a different share.

### which jordan river reaches the great salt lake?

The outlet of Utah Lake. The Provo River enters Utah Lake. The Jordan leaves it and flows north to the Great Salt Lake. The sheet combines them as Jordan/Provo, about 462 thousand acre-feet, about 14 percent. It is not the Jordan River in the Middle East.

### why is evaporation larger than the rivers when the sheet nearly balances?

Evaporation, about 3,217 thousand acre-feet, is larger than gauged tributaries, about 2,118. Rain and groundwater bring the rounded inflows near that evaporation. The 800,000 acre-foot figure is a separate planning magnitude, not 3,217 minus 2,118.

### is 400,000 acre-feet a year already conserved?

About 400,000 acre-feet is the 2021–2025 total, not one year. Five years added together come to roughly half of one year of the 800,000 acre-foot planning magnitude.

### is newfoundland already delivering 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet?

The 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet a year is Freeze's estimate, from 17 September 2026, and it depends on hydrology. It is not a finished project. She was describing trapped water that might be sent from the Newfoundland Basin back to the lake.

### did phragmites removal already save 80,000 acre-feet?

The 80,000 to 82,000 acre-feet is the state's estimate for a plant swap, not water already saved. About 55,000 acres of phragmites stand around the lake. Converting them to native inland saltgrass is the swap the FAQ estimates. Ben Stireman's report of over an 80 percent reduction in the reed is about the plant, from work over five years.

## what to open next

Who already moves water toward the lake is the next essay. If you treat what these basins deliver, source watershed investment is the matching door.

[who already sends water to the lake →](/guide/who-already-sends-water-to-the-lake?from=guide)

[utilities →](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake)

[talk with someone about the watershed →](/contact?from=guide&topic=great-salt-lake)

## sources

[Utah State University extension, Great Salt Lake fact sheet](https://hydrology.usu.edu/dtarb/GSLFactSheet.pdf) — rounded inflow shares for the Bear, Jordan/Provo, and Weber, plus gauged tributaries, precipitation, groundwater, and evaporation

[KSL / Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Carter Williams, 25 September 2026](https://www.ksl.com/article/51627764/many-groups-are-trying-to-save-the-great-salt-lake-heres-how-they-can-better-collaborate) — south arm 4,189.7 feet and north arm 4,189.6 feet that day, the healthy-level and 2022 comparison, and Utah's 82,000 acre-foot phragmites estimate

[Deseret News, 17 September 2026](https://www.deseret.com/environment/2026/09/17/great-salt-lake-commissioner-to-use-trumps-1-billion/) — Hannah Freeze on Newfoundland Basin estimates of 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet a year, Freeze on the reed and alfalfa, and Ben Stireman on the reduction in phragmites

[Great Salt Lake FAQ](https://greatsaltlake.utah.gov/faq/) — about 55,000 acres of phragmites, and the 80,000 to 82,000 acre-foot estimate for a conversion to native inland saltgrass

## the series

- [what the great salt lake actually is](/guide/what-the-great-salt-lake-actually-is?from=guide)
- [what brine shrimp need the lake to be](/guide/what-brine-shrimp-need-the-lake-to-be?from=guide)
- [a microbialite is not a water level](/guide/a-microbialite-is-not-a-water-level?from=guide)
- [great salt lake dust is the lakebed](/guide/great-salt-lake-dust-is-the-lakebed?from=guide)
- [the bear, the weber, and the jordan](/guide/the-bear-the-weber-and-the-jordan?from=guide)
- [who already sends water to the lake](/guide/who-already-sends-water-to-the-lake?from=guide)