Great Salt Lake in Utah in danger

The story: The silvery blue waters of the Great Salt Lake sprawl across the Utah desert, covering, for much of history, an area nearly the size of Del

Great Salt Lake in Utah in danger

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• The story: The silvery blue waters of the Great Salt Lake sprawl across the Utah desert, covering, for much of history, an area nearly the size of Delaware state. Now, the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River has been shrinking, and a drought gripping the American West could make this year the worst yet.
• Technical details: The receding water is affecting the nesting spot of pelicans that are among the millions of birds dependent on the lake. Sailboats have been hoisted out of the water to keep them from getting stuck in the mud. More dry lakebed getting exposed could send arsenic-laced dust into the air that millions breathe.

1. The lake’s levels are expected to hit a 170-year low this year. This comes as the drought has the US West bracing for a brutal wildfire season and coping with already low reservoirs.
2. For the Great Salt Lake, though, it is only the latest challenge. People for years have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes. Because the lake is shallow — about 35 feet at its deepest point — less water quickly translates to receding shorelines. The water that remains stretches across a chunk of northern Utah, with highways on one end and remote land on the other.
3. Experts warns of what happened at California’s Owens Lake, which was pumped dry to feed thirsty Los Angeles and created a dust bowl that cost millions of dollars to tamp down. The Great Salt Lake is much larger and closer to a populated area.
4. Luckily, much of the bed of Utah’s giant lake has a crust that makes it tougher for dust to blow.

• Story of Utah: It is one of the driest states in the USA, with most of its water coming from snowfall. The snowpack was below normal last winter and the soil was dry, meaning much of the melted snow that flowed down the mountains soaked into the ground. Most years, the Great Salt Lake gains up to half a metre from spring runoff. In 2021, it was just 15 centimeters. More exposed lakebed also means more people have ventured onto the crust, including off-road vehicles that damage it. So the more continued the drought remains, the more of the salt crust will be weathered and more dust will become airborne because there’s less of that protective crust layer.
• Marine life: Brine shrimp support a $57 million fish food industry in Utah but in the coming years, less water could make the salinity too great for even those tiny creatures to survive. The American white pelican (one of the largest birds in North America) flock to Gunnison Island, a remote outpost in the lake where up to 20% of the bird’s population nests, with male and female birds cooperating to have one watch the eggs at all times. Now, the falling lake levels have exposed a land bridge to the island, allowing foxes and coyotes to come across and hunt for rodents and other food. The activity frightens the shy birds accustomed to a quiet place to raise their young, so they flee the nests, leaving the eggs and baby birds to be eaten by gulls.

 

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