New report gives GSL only 5 years
The disappearing Great Salt Lake has again made national news. This time for a new report that says the lake will essentially be gone within five years without emergency measures to allow more water to reach the lake. First and foremost, that means buying out alfalfa farmers.
UPHE is quoted in the Washington Post article covering the new report, and all the associated issues with declining lake levels, including public health. “Nanoparticles of dust have potential to cause just as much harm if they come from dry lake bed as from a tailpipe or a smokestack,” said Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. He called the shrinking of the lake a “bona fide, documented, unquestionable health hazard.”
The lake currently sits about 10 feet lower than its minimum healthy level. Despite recent snow storms, the shrinking of the lake will only continue without abrupt changes in public policy that will allow more water to reach the lake. To save the lake, we need wholesale changes in water law, how we pay for water, and comprehensive measures to decrease water use. In short, the legislature needs to know the public demands that they get serious about saving the lake.
What’s at stake?
Your health
The Washington Post article reports that there is “more than 800 square miles of sediments laced with arsenic, mercury and other dangerous substances, which can be picked up by wind and blown into the lungs of some 2.5 million people living near the lakeshore.”
The migration pattern of 10 million birds
Less freshwater feeding into the lake increases the salinity. Although salt is part of what makes the lake unique, the levels are off balance without enough water. This threatens the ecosystem, threatens the brine flies and shrimp, which feed 10 million birds that count on the lake as a resting point in their migration.
Billion dollar industries
Declining levels have a huge impact on local industries that depend on Great Salt Lake. The brine shrimp harvest industry brings $10-60 million to the economy alone. An industry near and dear to so many Wasatch Fronters’ hearts that could be severely impacted as well is the snow sport industry. The Wasatch mountain snow pack is highly connected to water levels in the lake.
Even lawmakers not traditionally sympathetic to environmental issues have described this as a looming “environmental nuclear bomb.” But the legislature still needs to be pushed towards urgent action. Please join us at the Capitol this Saturday, January 14, at 12pm, to rally to Save Our Great Salt Lake.
We’re in an “all hands on deck” emergency situation, say numerous scientific experts about Great Salt Lake. Without a wholesale change in public water use policy, Great Salt Lake will be gone in five years.