Dead Pools And Toxic Dust: Great Salt Lake, And Lake Powell Drying Up, And Causing Real Problems.

Satellite view of Great Salt Lake in Utah. The 
lighter areas around the lake used to be under
water, but now are dry lakebed areas that 
blow potentially toxic dust into
populated areas east of the lake. 

Here in Vermont, we might be complaining about brown lawns, low water in our rivers and worries about our wells as our drought settles in. 

But a mega-drought out west is creating challenges far worse than ours.  

We have two examples, both involving large but badly shrinking lakes.

The Great Salt Lake is so low that dust blowing off now dry lakebeds are creating health hazards for those living nearby. 

And Lake Powell, an immense reservoir in the Southwest is getting so low that some worry it might not be able to provide crucial water supplies and hydroelectric power to millions.

GREAT SALT LAKE

The Great Salt Lake is at near record lows, exposing expanses of flat, formerly submerged lake beds which were once part of this lake. 

An area encompassing 120 square miles that was once under salty water is now dusty playa, which is a word for dry lake bed. 

Gusty winds stir up the dust and blow it into fast-growing neighborhoods near Salt Lake City.  The Wasatch Front, which encompasses the city's metropolitan area, has a population of about 2.6 million.

The dust blowing into many of those neighborhoods likely contains dangerous substances, such as arsenic and lead. 

Studies have shown these and other substances in the Great Salt Lake dust can cause cancer or cardiovascular disease, but no comprehensive research has been done on how all this is affecting people who live in the region.

Similar salt lakes that have largely dried up in other locations in the world, like the Aral Sea in central Asia and Lake Urmia in Iran have resulted in health problems in populations nearby that have been exposed to dust blowing off those lakes. 

The Great Salt Lake has no outlet. How deep it gets depends on how much water flows into it, and how much evaporates in Utah's hot summers. The lake has always gone up and down, but since the 1980s the trend has been downward. 

Part of the decline is due to the rising population and increased water usage for industry, farming, construction and people moving to the area. Utah is one of the fastest growing states.

Climate change has a role, too. Big droughts have allowed the lake to slip to such low levels.  Some scientists say this is regions worst drought in 1,200 years.

As the Washington Post explains, the state legislature passed several laws aimed at conserving water. Public opinion polls indicate Utahans firmly back those conservation efforts. 

But the lake won't turn around anytime soon, if at all. So the dust will keep blowing into populated areas. 

There's not a significant monitoring program along the Great Salt Lake to assess what's in the dust blowing off the playa and how dangerous it is. 

WaPo again:

"The counties near the lake have six federally regulated air quality monitors that track lake dust. The monitors don't routinely look at the composition of the dust.

While the EPA said it has no plans to monitor the lake dust on a federal level, Marisa Lubeck, an agency spokesperson, added that it 'supports Utah's leadership in actively monitoring and conducting research to understand dust from the Great Salt Lake and its potential impacts."

So for now, nobody in Utah knows how much bad stuff their breathing from the now- Not As Great Salt Lake blows dust into some of Utah's fastest growing cities, towns and neighborhoods.

LAKE POWELL 

This lake on the Utah-Arizona border has been plagued by low water levels for a number of years now, thanks to that mega-drought in the West and pressure from increased water usage by a growing population.

It's now at its lowest level in three years, which is forcing boat launches to close and raising fears about water supplies and hydroelectric power. generation.  

Per USA Today

Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border remains very
low, and if it continues dropping, water and electrical 
supplies could be at risk for millions of people.

 "There's a chance that Lake Powell's water level could fall to an elevation that would force the stoppage of power generation at the Glen Canyon Dam, which would affect electricity supply to millions of people in many states."  

Things could get extremely dire for millions of people if the water level gets too much lower. USA Today again:

".....another concern is the chance that Lake Powell could reach so-called 'dead pool' status by December, 2026. That is the level at which a dam can no longer release water downstream.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of the Interior, if dead pool is reached at Lake Powell, residents of seven western states,  - Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California, - could see power blackouts and water shortages."

Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead, another critical reservoir in the West are only at one third of their capacity.

We've been here before. In 2022, the reservoirs were only 25 percent full, but a couple of wet winters allowed water levels in both lakes to rise slightly, preventing an immediate crisis.

But the lake levels are falling again, and there's no guarantee a wet winter will save things again.  Climate change, with its drought and added heat, are evaporating water faster than it can go into the reservoirs.  

Recent research suggests that climate change has altered a complex relationship between the atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean. This reconfigured atmospheric dance between air and ocean encourages drought in the Southwest. 

That's only part of the problem. Even if the region miraculously cooled off and got wetter, overuse and a rising population are keeping the Lakes Powell and Mead from stabilizing and adding capacity. 

Opinion is mixed as to whether Lake Powell will hit "dead pool" within the next year or two or not. But now is the time to start thinking about alternatives in the region, in case water and power supplies are eventually disrupted.