Why save the Great Salt Lake?

NEWS

Flying into the SLC Airport, you can see the beautiful color of the Great Salt Lake from high above. Any highway or freeway you take near the lake provides stunning views of this famous lake. It’s an iconic sight that people from out of state and longtime residents love to look at. Unfortunately, that might not be the sight we always see.

Year after year we are losing more water from the Great Salt Lake and the repercussions could be disastrous, warned scientists in a briefing published by BYU in January 2023. It stated that we have lost 73% of the water and the lake may be in danger of disappearing in as little as five years if we continue on this path.

This is a sobering outlook. The brief continues: The Lake drying up won’t just affect the 250 species of birds that use the lake during their migrations or the $2.5 billion annual economic impact; toxic dust clouds from the dried areas of the lake can increase rates of diseases associated with pollution for the 2.6 million people living along the Wasatch Front. 

They say we need an additional 1 million acre-feet annually to reverse the decline. Water use must be reduced by half to a third from the Great Salt Lake watershed to reach this flow point. We are making headway. In one recent development, Utah legislators passed H.B. 453 which Gov. Cox signed on March 12, 2024.

H.B. 453 is intended to ensure that mineral companies around the Great Salt Lake abide by a similar set of rules that the rest of Utah follows regarding water usage so that more water is conserved and makes it to the lake and stays there. Mineral extraction companies will still be able to continue business but will be incentivized to use less water during the extraction process.

Utah is second in the nation for water use per person, claimed Utah State University professor Sarah Null. There are small things residents can do to help bring this down: USU has published some comprehensive guides about planting native plants that will be more drought tolerant than an ornamental lawn. They use less water than a lawn and can help fight against erosion in your yard. They also benefit the local wildlife and help boost biodiversity.

There is also the option of joining or donating to organizations researching to fix things, like the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, The Nature Conservancy, Grow the Flow, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, and more. 

The lake has a rich history, from seasonal visits from the local Shoshone Tribe to the pink flamingo that escaped to the lake to the very first Saltair that sat on it. The wetlands surrounding the lake make up 75% of the state's wetlands, serving as a gas station for more than 10 million migratory birds and the large variety of insects they munch on, including brine shrimp and brine flies. Changes are beginning as heightened awareness spreads throughout the state. 

“What if we flip the question and wonder: What opportunities open up if we save the lake?” Emma Penrod, in Why Save The Great Salt Lake?