Irrigation Organizations (IOs) in the US West deliver most of the water used for irrigated agriculture. The people who run them, water managers, play a large role in future water management. Importantly, IOs and water managers, and their perspectives regarding future water management, remain understudied. Our paper fills this knowledge gap by analyzing publicly available water rights data and data collected from agricultural water managers to build a data narrative about why formal uptake of water banking, a market-based water management strategy introduced in 2020, has been slow among Utah’s IOs. Using these data, we identify data gaps that limit our understanding of how water for agriculture moves in Utah. We also show that that most IOs have little water to place in a future water bank, and that over half of those surveyed believe none of their shareholders would be interested in participating. Finally, government meddling, fear of forfeiture, and economic impacts are all barriers to water banking. This study clarifies whether and how water markets might be integrated into a more secure water future. We emphasize that while water banking remains one tool for nimble water management, the barriers to banking may overwhelm its benefits in Utah.