Before 1983 the state left most of the responsibility for flood control with the counties. The 1983 spring floods, however, were so extensive and serious that the state became deeply involved in flood mitigation and prevention.

Historians say Brigham Young, leader of the Mormon pioneers who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, explored the possibility of spilling the lake into the west desert area when the lake peaked at 4211.6 feet in 1873. But the lake receded on its own after 1873. During the early 1970s, several researchers and state and federal agencies defined the hydrology of the lake, developed computer models of its, and investigated alternatives for dealing with high lake levels. Summaries of much of this work were published in 1973 and 1974 by the Utah Division of Water Resources titled Great Salt Lake Climate and Hydrologic System and Hydrologic System Management Alternatives Report. The 19 7 7 and 1978 drought years slowed interest in preparing for problems with high levels of the Great Salt Lake. But a flurry of legislation was passed in 1983 and 1984 legislative sessions which committed the state to help alleviate flood damage. With the continual rise of the lake during those years, a breach of the Southern Pacific Railroad Causeway gained support. The elevation of the lake was over three feet higher on the south side of the causeway than on the north side. The causeway had become a dam. Great Salt Lake Minerals provided $200,000 for the state to conduct a feasibility study of the proposed breach. The state's technical position was that the breach would lower the level of the south arm of the lake nearly a foot and would be cost effective. In January 1984, after being defeated in two legislative sessions, a breach of the Southern Pacific Railroad Causeway was funded. Costing about $3.2 million, a 300-foot wide bridge was constructed in the causeway near the west side of the lake and the causeway breach was opened on August 1, 1984.

During a two-day special session of the Utah State Legislature that ended on May 14, 1986, a $71.7 million flood control plan was approved to pump water from the Great Salt Lake and build more emergency shore diking. The pumping project, originally proposed during the administration of Gov. Scott M. Matheson, was one of several proposals that were spawned by flooding of the Great Salt Lake. The so-called "last resort" pumping plan, sponsored by Republican Sen. Fred Finlinson, passed with two-thirds support and was expected to lower by about 16 inches after a year of pumping. Engineers hoped pumping would start in February 1987.

The flood control bill, HB6, cautiously backed by Gov. Norman H. Bangerter, provided $60 million to the Utah Division of Water Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, for constructing the West Desert Pumping Project and $ 10 million to the Disaster Relief Board to implement diking in Salt Lake County, raise breakwaters around the Great Salt Lake Marina, raise dikes at the AMAX Magnesium Plant and American Salt Co. to protect Interstate 80, and further dike protection of sewage treatment facilities on the lake's east shore. Tagged to the bill was $1.2 million for engineering design of an interisland diking proposal and $500,000 for preconstruction design studies of upstream storage dams, principally on the Bear River, which would require 10 to 20 years to complete. Flood control funding included $30 million from an existing flood mitigation fund deposited in the Conservation and Development Fund managed by the Utah Board of Water Resources, and $41.7 million obtained from a general obligation bond. The bond was to be paid off with a one-eighth cent share of the state's sales tax retained through 1989.