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| Imagery shows how much the Great Salt Lake in Utah shrunk between 1988 and 2021, |
For now.
Then again, believe it not, it might actually entirely disappear within five years.
As HuffPost and many other media outlets recently reported, the Great Salt Lake in Utah has been at record lows for two years in a row.
A new scientific report tells us this trend could make the lake fade away by the end of this decade, if not before.
"The lake has been steadily shrinking because so much water from the rivers and streams that feed it is being redirected for human use. This is exacerbated by the climate change-fueled mega-drought that has been parching the U.S. West for years, with less rain and snow entering the water system."
The Great Salt Lake might be big in area, as it normally covers 1,600 to 2,000 square miles. The only lakes in the United States are the five Great Lakes.
However, the Great Salt Lake is not so great when it comes to depth. On average, it's only 14 feet deep with a maximum of 35 feet. That means there's not all that much water there that can evaporate.
Water levels can fall dramatically during dry years and rise during wet years. When snowpack melts in the spring, the lake usually rises about 2 feet. In years with above-average snowpack, it can go up 3 to 4 feet. In 2022 and 2021, the elevation only went up about 1 foot because of the poor snowpack.
The problem now is the persistent western mega-drought. The Great Salt Lake might be seeing a minor reprieve this winter, as some of the moisture from those huge California storms are making it to the Great Salt Lake watershed.
But not much. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday, still has virtually all of Utah in drought, and the area around the Great Salt Lake in severe to extreme drought.
The mega drought in the West won't disappear even if the rest of this winter proves to be wet. If that were the only thing to consider, that would be bad enough. But us humans, as usual, are making things worse.
The Washington Post noted that more than 70 percent of the Utah's water use goes towards growing crops to feed livestock.
The lake has lost about 40 billion gallons of water since 2020, and conservation measures now in place aren't good enough to replace that huge amount of water, WaPo tells us.
A recently released report by researchers from Brigham Young University said Utah and nearby states need to curb water consumption by a third to a half. That's a pretty tall order. But such cuts, if successful, would allow 2.5 million acre feet of water to flow from streams and rivers right into the lake over the next couple of years.
It looks as if people have been taken the Utah lake for granted. "Over the last three years the report says, the lake has received less than a third of its normal stream flow because so much water has been diverted for other purposes. In 2022, its surface sank to a record low, ten feet below what is the minimum healthy level.
Since there's so much less fresh water flowing into the Great Salt Lake, the water that's there is getting even saltier.
Great Salt Lake's unique ecosystem makes it an important resource for migratory birds. An estimated 10 million birds depend on the lake's brine shrimp and flies. It's also an essential breeding ground for pelicans
As the Washington Post reports, if those conservation measures aren't taken the Great Salt Lake ecosystem would collapse. The lake is becoming too salty for even those brine shrimp and flies. So what do all those millions of birds get for lunch and dinner at the lake? Little or nothing, if this trend continues.
If you don't give a crap about the brine shrimp and pelicans, consider this. All that salt and sediment at the bottom of the lake contains really, really bad things like arsenic and mercury. While the Mr. Yuck stuff is under water, it's not a huge danger to a lot of people.
But if the Great Salt Lake disappears, the sediment will dry out into sand and dust. Then Utah's notoriously gusty winds will blow all that stuff into the noses of the 1.25 million or so people in the Salt Lake City metro area.
On the political side, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said his administration won't let the Great Salt Lake
As reported by the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah:
"'I'm telling people: On my watch we are not allowing the lake to go dry. We will do whatever it taes to make sure that doesn't happen,' he said.......
The governor said water conservation and the Great Salt Lake are among his top priorities to tackle with lawmakers in the 2023 legislative session that begins next week. He is supporting bills and spending around water conservation measures.
As part of his $28 billion budget, Gov. Cox would like to see incentives offered to get agriculture producers - the state's top water user - to switch to new technologies that allow them to grow crops with less water. He has also proposed money to pay farmers not to grow crops and let the water go downstream, to purchase water rights for the lake itself and expanding cloud seeding.
'You will see additional water going into the lake. You're literally going to see releases from other reservoir systems into the lake. It's never happened before,' he said. 'You're going to see water rights going to the lake.'"
Well, we'll see.
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