While there is a conservation community that embraces the Great Salt Lakeâs worthâand birders have certainly increased in number (the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival is entering its 22nd year)âthe rest of the world has been a slow sell. In a desert state, where freshwater is like gold, and unique outdoor marvels abound, the salty, pungent Lake has remained decidedly under-appreciated.
âNot too long ago, my view of the Great Salt Lake didnât differ much from that of a friend who described it as a âgiant stinky mudhole,â says Representative Tim Hawkes, a Republican state legislator from Centerville, Utah. âI had no idea of its value and figured that any water that made it into the main body of the Lake was wasted because the water was so salty as to be good for nothing.â
Hawkes, who is now General Counsel to Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative and is leading efforts in the Utah State Legislature to enact policy changes to protect the Lake, knows his dismal first impression is not uncommon. But Hawkes had an awakening, and heâs on a mission to share it with his fellow legislators.
âThe more I learn, the more I realize how much the Lake is connected to our lives not just here locally, but regionally, nationally, and even internationally,â Hawkes says. âI know now that itâs a vital and precious resource that we canât afford to lose.â
Just how precious? We know the birds need the Lake. But what about people? Letâs break it down.
Dangerous Dust
As a lake shrinks, more lakebed is exposed, and fine particles of dust become airborne. This is a lesson that has already been learnedâthe hard way. Take one example: Owens Lake, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, which was desiccated by water diversions in the 1920s. Its exposed lakebed became one of the nationâs largest sources of PM10 air pollution. Those are dust particles small enough to get into your nose, throat and lungs, and are linked to cancer, cardiac arrhythmias and heart attacks as well as asthma and bronchitis. Even if you set aside the devastating health impacts, thereâs also the price tagâmore than two billion dollarsâto try to undo the damage. As Los Angeles has had to re-water Owens Lake, residents paid for it in their water bills. For perspective: The Great Salt Lake is 16 times bigger than Owens Lake.
Dr. Greg Carling, a geology professor from Brigham Young University, explains: âI think there are many reasons to keep water in the Great Salt Lake, but holding down the fine particles in the lakebed â that is reason enough. It should motivate us.â Carling is part of a team researching dust in the West. Their recent study showed that 90 percent of dust along Utahâs Wasatch Front already comes from dried up lakebeds and desert basins. Carlingâs colleague, Dr. McKenzie Skiles, a geography professor with the University of Utah,studies another aspect of Lake-born dust. Hip deep in snowdrifts at her monitoring site in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Skiles measures aerosols in the air and snow. Her findings: dust from the Great Salt Lakeâs exposed bed is being deposited on the Wasatch Mountains, and itâs darkening the snow, causing it to melt faster.
âThis is a story thatâs not told enough,â stresses Skiles. âHuman activity is directly linked to dust, and the ripple effect is huge.â Skilesâ research revealed that in just one spring storm, the amount of dust blowing off the Great Salt Lake accelerated mountain snowmelt by five days. For Utahâs water managers, and for anyone financially tied to Utahâs epic powder, the timing and pace of snowmelt are critical. âThe implications for our watersystems are serious,â says Skiles. âEighty percent of our water comes from snow. Our current models donât account for the impact of dust. We are uncovering a whole different aspect to the importance of keeping water in the Great Salt Lake.â
While weâre on the topic of snow and mountains, thereâs one more piece to the Lake storyâthe weather it generates itself. Every winter, when cold winds blow in just the right direction and at the right speed over the warm air rising from the Lakeâs salty, unfrozen waters, we see âLake effectâ storms. The upshot: heavy bands of snow dump over the Wasatch Mountainsâand some of Utahâs most popular ski resorts.
Dollars, Jobs and Seafood
Are you keeping up? Even if youâre not a Utahn (or a Utah skier), chances are the Great Salt Lake is still a part of your life. One reason why: Americaâs love of seafood. When the Lakeâs water levels drop, salinity increases dramatically, threatening the lifecycle of a particularly unique Lake inhabitant: brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. Also known as sea monkeys, these algae-eating crustaceans are just 15mm in size, yet they are a huge component of the Lake ecosystem. They are a critical food source for the birds, and they are a global commodity.
Each winter, regulated by the State of Utah, brine shrimpers haul around 9,000 tons of brine shrimp cysts out of the Great Salt Lake. The cysts are dormant eggs, which are sold to hatcheries as far away as southeast Asia to provide a nutrient-rich food source for farm-raised shrimp and fish. This is the same seafood that ends up on your plate. Today, about 90 percent of the farmed shrimp we consume in the United States is imported, and nearly 40 percent of the worldâs supply of brine shrimp eggsâthe food that grows the shrimp you eatâcomes from the Great Salt Lake.
Don Leonard, president of the brine shrimp industry trade association in Utah, spells it out: âa healthy brine shrimp resource secures essential health for larval stage fish and shrimp â which play a necessary role in providing much-needed healthy protein for people in both developing and developed countries around the world.â
Leonard also serves as Chair of the Great Salt Lake Advisory Council (GSLAC), established in 2010 to help advise the State of Utah on the health and sustainability of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. GSLAC has played a lead role in documenting the economic threats emerging as the Lake declines. A GSLAC study revisedin 2019 found that: âthe potential costs of a drying Great Salt Lake could be as much as $1.69 billion to $2.17 billion per year and over 6,500 job losses.â
This eye-popping price tag includes not only brine shrimpers but also Lake recreation and tourism, and industries built on extracting or processing minerals from the Lake. North Americaâs only magnesium producer operates on the Lake, extracting a mineral that ends up in a vast array of products from aluminum cans and computers to cell phones and cars. The Lake also yields sulfate of potash, which is used to fertilize nut and fruit crops in California and Florida. The Lakeâs receding waters have already forced some of the mineral companies to make costly operation changes, such as extending canals and moving pumps to reach the water. âThe message is clear and is very understandable,â says Leonard. âAfter being informed, most people will not accept the loss of a healthy Great Salt Lake until we have done everything in our power to preserve all that it contributes and represents.â
.png?width=1200&upscale=true&name=Utah_Policy_Logo_Email_Full%20(1).png){kind=logo}
