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Chad Yamane, the regional director of Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit organization that maintains habitats for waterfowl in North America and a waterfowl hunter himself, expresses his concern that we are on the edge of an ecological breakdown of the lake.
Last autumn, the Great Salt Lake achieved its most reduced level since record keeping began. Its elevation dropped to approximately six meters under the long-term mean, shrinking the Western Hemisphere's biggest saltwater lake to half of its traditional surface area. The lake's diminishing has the potential to disrupt the ecosystem, negatively affecting the migration and maintenance of 10 million birds, including ducks and geese.
Those who hunt ducks are not the only ones anxious about the Great Salt Lake's condition. In the past few decades, the water level has been decreasing, causing distress for a large number of people living in the area. The diminishing lake and increased saltiness can have a negative effect on industries such as agriculture, tourism, mineral extraction, and harvesting brine shrimp. Furthermore, the exposed sediments can reduce air quality, consequently putting public health at risk. According to Yamane, "The issue is now on the mind of every Utahan."
The Great Salt Lake is not the only one of its kind; many of the saline lakes around the world find themselves dealing with two major issues: human activity is depleting the water sources that supply the lakes, and a warmer, drier climate has lengthened the time it takes for the water to replenish.
Terminal lakes, such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea, can be found on each continent and have no river that flows out of them. As the water evaporates, salts remain from the minerals that are brought from the landscape. As saline lakes are usually located in areas with very little rain, they are the most affected by the long-term droughts that are increasingly common with climate change.
At the same moment, inhabitants of arid areas divert fresh water for agriculture, households, and businesses. People take water from rivers and streams and channel it into canals, pipes, or reservoirs before it can get to the lakes. As the lakes decrease in size, the concentration of salt in them rises.
Bolivia's Lake Poopo, which used to measure 90 km by 32 km, is now just a salty mud flat. The Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, previously the fourth largest lake in the world, has at times in recent years dropped to 10% of its former 68,000 km2 size. India's largest inland salt lake, Sambhar Salt Lake, is in a similar state, as is Africa's Lake Chad. In the case of Nevada's Winnemucca Lake, the water that once filled it has long been rerouted to farms and the lake has become so distant in people's memories that it appears as though it was never wet.
In January, a study conducted by scientists at Brigham Young University demonstrated that, if people continue to use water in an unsustainable manner, it is highly probable that the Great Salt Lake will vanish within five years. The report can be found here.
Utahans still have an opportunity to prevent or even reverse the decrease of the Great Salt Lake by decreasing their water consumption. According to the report, if a combination of policy changes and voluntary conservation methods are used that reduce outdoor and agricultural water usage by up to one-half, the lake can be replenished and continue to support the economy, ecology, and quality of life in the area. If the plan is successful, the Great Salt Lake could be used as an example of how to save other lakes of a similar nature around the world.
Two satellite images, side by side, demonstrate the changes in the surface area of the Great Salt Lake between June 1985 and July 2022. On the left, a blue and green view of the lake and Antelope Island is seen, taken when the water level was high due to rain and snowmelt. The right-hand photo was taken in July 2022 and shows the lake's surface much smaller, with the old borders of the lake still visible. This image shows how the water level had gone down to a record low.
What is the cause of the diminishing levels of the Great Salt Lake?
The Great Salt Lake, similar to other terminal lakes, fluctuates in size annually in accordance to how much water enters and exits its basin. The majority of precipitation that lands in the region is snow in wintertime, which melts during the spring and runs off into the lake. The lake is not very deep - about four meters on average - causing it to fluctuate in size remarkably quickly. For example, back in the 1980s, the lake expanded to 6,000 square kilometers due to a wet season, which is more than double the size it is currently.
The lake level is without a doubt decreasing, and according to hydrologic modeling done by Wayne Wurtsbaugh and Sarah Null from Utah State University in Logan, it would be 3.4 meters higher if the Mormon settlers hadn't started taking water from the rivers and streams in the area in 1847.
Currently, the majority of water taken from the Great Salt Lake watershed is utilized to water crops, particularly hay that is utilized to feed cattle which are used to manufacture beef and diary, the major agricultural products of the state.
Approximately 9% of the water from the Great Salt Lake is used for mineral extraction. This briny liquid is then processed to make salt, fertilizer, and magnesium metal. An additional 9% of the water is piped to provide drinking water for cities. The last 8% is lost through evaporation from the lakes and reservoirs in the basin.
The record lows of the Great Salt Lake have been attributed to climate change. The area has been suffering the worst megadrought in the past 1,200 years for the past two decades, and the lake is not being replenished quickly enough to sustain the withdrawals upstream. Additionally, the higher temperatures are causing increased evaporation from the lake.
Utilization of the waters from the Great Salt Lake
Agriculture is the main consumer of water in the Great Salt Lake watershed, with mining, residences, businesses and evaporation taking up a lesser amount.
As shown in the pie chart, the Great Salt Lake watershed's water consumption is divided into four categories: Agriculture (olive) at 74%, Mineral extraction (maroon) at 9%, Cities and industry (pink) at 9%, and Reservoir loss (light blue) the smallest portion at 8%.
When the weather is hot and dry, more water is used for the growth of crops or for sustaining the green on lawns, which according to Patrick Donnelly, a research scientist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula, Mont., is comparable to a climate tax on our waterways. Donnelly states that in northern Utah an agricultural producer requires 20 percent more water to create the same crops that were grown a decade and a half ago.
Donnelly and his colleagues established that 18 lakes in the Intermountain West, consisting of the Great Salt Lake, underwent a mean area reduction of 27% between 1984 and 2018. The surface area of the local wetlands nearly got halved. This team of researchers published their 2020 study in the Global Change Biology journal, which highlighted that the primary cause of this decline was mainly due to the high demands of irrigated farming, combined with increased temperatures that induced evaporation.
The requirement for freshwater is continuing to escalate, particularly in Utah which is the quickest developing state in the US. Moreover, 80 percent of the population resides in the area of the Great Salt Lake.
Donnelly has expressed that it would be unrealistic to assume that the Great Salt Lake region could provide the sufficient amount of water needed to meet current and increasing demands. He refers to a proposed plan to dam and divert the Bear River, which supplies over half of the lake's freshwater and is already equipped with canals, ditches, and reservoirs, to supply communities in Utah. This project could result in the Great Salt Lake's level dropping more than a meter and a half and the salinity increasing to over 22 percent, as outlined in the book Great Salt Lake Biology published in 2020 by Wurtsbaugh and Null, which would damage the lake's invertebrate community.
The impacts of a diminished Great Salt Lake
The effects of a diminishing lake are already being felt in the region. Mineral extraction businesses are having difficulty obtaining water for ponds and factories. Some livestock farmers are apprehensive about their ability to access the full amount of water for irrigation from the lake's freshwater tributaries. Utah's ski resorts are also experiencing the impact: It's estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of the snowfall that attracts millions of tourists to the ski slopes originates from the lake's comparatively warm waters.
The Great Salt Lake could become a bleak dust bowl like Owens Lake in Central California if it were to dry up completely. This lake went dry in 1926 due to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's decision to divert the Owens River into a 375-kilometer-long aqueduct to supply water to Southern California. This engineering feat resulted in the desolation of once-fertile farmlands and health issues for people living nearby.
Exposed lake beds are frequently the cause of strong dust storms. These stirred-up sediments bring air pollution which can lead to a range of health problems, ranging from asthma to cardiopulmonary diseases and even lung cancer. Owens Lake has been one of the most significant sources of dust pollution in the US. To reduce the dust, the City of Los Angeles has contributed more than $2.5 billion towards mitigation projects, such as planting vegetation, shallow flooding, spreading gravel and tilling the ground.
In 2022, a marina near Antelope Island northwest of Salt Lake City was exposed as the Great Salt Lake reached an unprecedentedly low water level. -B. RandallSalt Lake City has experienced sobering news; it had seven times the amount of lake bed revealed last fall compared to Owens Lake. Yamane reported that during the warm months when a strong south breeze blows, you can observe a dust cloud coming off the lake because of the receding water.
The sediments found in saline lakes are prone to accumulating pollutants from human activities, such as chemicals from urban and agricultural runoff and toxic mine waste. The Great Salt Lake was particularly impacted by years of mining and smelting, which resulted in an increase of heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, in the lake bed's sediments. When exposed, these metals can be carried by dust particles, which may lead to an increase in illnesses related to air pollution, according to a January report from Brigham Young University researchers.
The reduction in water levels is also detrimental to birds. Nearly 350 distinct species are supported by the Great Salt Lake, many of which are migratory birds that use this saline lake as a pit stop as they fly along the Central or Pacific flyways. While some species can survive in either a fresh or salty lake, there are some, such as eared grebes and phalaropes, that exclusively depend on saline lakes.
A 2017 report from the National Audubon Society states that the majority of saltwater lakes in the West that are vital to birds have reduced their surface area by fifty to ninety-five percent over the last century and a half. John Luft, manager of the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, comments, “The birds have to now go after a much more limited resource than they did in the past.”
At certain times of the year, approximately 95% of the total eared grebe population (5 million birds) take a pause in Utah during their migration. Each grebe requires around 30,000 brine shrimp from the Great Salt Lake before moving on. The shrimp can only survive in a salinity range of 12 to 17%, however, last September the south arm of the lake had a salinity of 18%, much higher than the average 3.5% of the ocean.
The Great Salt Lake is a pivotal pit stop for migrating birds, such as the eared grebe (right).IMAGES FROM LEFT: Leamus/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Hal Beral/Corbis/Getty Images PlusHow to address the diminishing water levels in Great Salt Lake?
Wurtsbaugh expresses concern over the drying projection, but maintains that citizens can help prevent it through water conservation.Null concurs that the salvation of Great Salt Lake is a lengthy process and not something that can be promptly settled. She holds the view that the most effective approach to achieving progress is for people to be driven and willing to modify their conduct.
Residents of Utah have the second highest per capita water consumption in the United States. To replenish the Great Salt Lake, the most affordable path is to motivate people to apply less water. This can be done by using rain barrels, permeable pavement, and xeriscaping in cities and towns, as well as optimizing the efficiency of irrigation systems on farms and ranches.
The research by Wurtsbaugh and Null discovered that enforcing water cutbacks on a permanent basis would cost between $5 and $32 per person. The report co-authored by 32 Great Salt Lake experts, which was released by BYU, highlighted conservation as the most cost-effective solution and the only way to ensure adequate water to save the lake. It particularly pointed out the importance of decreasing outdoor water use, particularly in agricultural regions.
In 2019, with diminishing water sources and low lake levels, the Utah State Legislature took action by introducing legislation that encouraged water conservation. According to Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, this is an opportunity for the people of Utah to show how they can tackle the issue. "The people of Utah … want to solve the problem," he states.
It is now mandated by recent legislation to ban any regulations that require citizens to water their lawns in Salt Lake City, as fines for not doing so were previously widespread. Additionally, this legislation ensures that the proper measures are taken to monitor water usage from individual households up to the whole watershed.
The legislature has set aside $250 million to introduce a large number of meters to monitor outdoor water consumption. Wurtsbaugh indicated that a trial in the Weber River, which feeds into the Great Salt Lake, demonstrated that people were using 25% less water when aware of their own water usage relative to their neighbors. Additionally, this technology also permits individuals to be charged accurately for the water they use, instead of a flat fee for outdoor water that applies regardless of the quantity.
In Utah, approximately three-quarters of the water usage is attributed to agriculture, so the state is advocating water conservation among farmers and ranchers. Ferry, a fifth-generation farmer who relies on Bear River water for irrigation, expresses that this shift has the benefit of making the operations more enduring during periods of drought. "It is essential for producers to be part of the resolution," he remarks.
In 2022, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food's Water Optimization Program awarded $70 million to aid agriculturalists in the installation of drip or sprinkler systems that conserve water. The Utah State Legislature also allocated $40 million for the safeguarding of lake water flows, a large portion of which is allocated to the initiation of a water trust. This trust would pay irrigators for leaving a portion of their water rights in the stream or river instead of using it for crop irrigation. Such a water lease could exist for a single summer or for numerous years.
In the arid West, an expensive way to restore saline lakes has been to purchase water rights from willing sellers. For example, in Nevada, the Walker Basin Restoration Program has invested $92 million to increase the level of Walker Lake, located 150 kilometers southeast of Reno. Even though this is a costly endeavor, it has only acquired 53 percent of the water necessary to support native fish and wildlife.
Infrastructure on a Large Scale and the Natural World
Failing to find success with water conservation initiatives, Utahans may need to consider a more dramatic measure for the purpose of safeguarding the Great Salt Lake.
Null contends that the option to conservation is relying on large infrastructure initiatives to refill the lake by bringing in water from other basins. An example of this is the Central Utah Project, which has been a work in progress for more than 80 years and still is incomplete. It involves moving up to 310 billion liters from the Colorado River Basin in eastern Utah, which is already grossly overused, into reservoirs and tunnels to supply water for irrigation, municipal, and industrial purposes in the Great Salt Lake's basin. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation states that the Central Utah Project is "among the most complex" water resources development projects it has ever taken on, with an estimated cost of $3 billion once all phases are finished.
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The watershed of the Great Salt Lake stretches across Utah, as well as parts of Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. This map displays the locations of urban and agricultural land use. Teresa Gomez, the Geospatial Analysis, Data, and Technology Specialist from Brigham Young University Library, provided it.In order to protect what remained of the Aral Sea, dikes were put up, thus permanently dooming the other parts of the lake. As for Mono Lake, its preservation was accomplished via a legal case based on the public trust doctrine, which states that the government has an obligation to safeguard resources which belong to all. The court ruling blocked the cities in Southern California with water rights to the river that fed Mono Lake from receiving water. Los Angeles made up for this lack by implementing water conservation methods.
Ferry indicated that Utah is remaining open to all potential solutions. Several farfetched ideas like cloud seeding and obtaining water from the Pacific Ocean to fill up the lake have been proposed in Salt Lake City. Nonetheless, the majority of individuals interviewed in Utah agree that the best plan is to pray for snow.
Ferry expressed a hopeful outlook last fall, expressing his belief that the worst was behind them, as long as they got some snow.
This winter, Utah has been blessed with a record-breaking quantity of snow, providing a glimmer of hope. Nevertheless, it will require multiple years of rain above the average amount to reverse the state's existing drought.
Yamane states that Mother Nature is majorly involved in this, and for it to be saved, a shift in mindset, culture, and policy is needed. However, with the help of Mother Nature, it can be achieved.
Quotations
According to B.W. Abbot and fellow scientists, emergency steps must be taken to save Great Salt Lake from further deterioration. This was reported on January 4th, 2023.
A study conducted by J.P. Donnelly and colleagues, published in Global Change Biology on January 22, 2020, found that climate change and human water use are having a detrimental effect on wetland networks, which are essential for the successful continental migration of waterbirds. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15010
Null and Wurtsbaugh explored the area of Water Development, Consumptive Water Uses, and the Great Salt Lake in their work, Great Salt Lake Biology, published by Springer in the year 2020.
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