Great Salt Lake needs real solutions
Great Salt Lake is getting more and more attention as concern over what its declining levels mean for the future. While the legislature insists they are paying attention, most of the actions taken so far have just been nibbling around the edges. The research has already provided clear conclusions. We need to act fast.This year. This session. It cannot wait.
UPHE was quoted in The Week’s article on the topic, “Utah lawmakers are also considering a range of mitigation measures, from restricting lawn irrigation to conserve water in some cities to less plausible ideas like cloud-seeding, thinning forests in the mountains around the Great Salt Lake, and building pipelines to suction up water from the Pacific Ocean. “We are getting some really fantastical suggestions from some of our lawmakers as to how to solve this.” I reiterated the only real solution is buying out water-intensive alfalfa farms to divert less water from feeding the lake.
The Guardian also had an article geared towards getting to the root of the problem. They point to actions Salt Lake City and residents have taken to conserve water, but point out that the city uses less than 9% of water diverted from the lake. The majority of the water diverted from Great Salt Lake goes to agriculture.
With only about a week left in the legislative session, we aren’t seeing any solutions to the agriculture problem.