Last summer, the water level in the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest point on record, and it’s likely to fall further this year. ![]() Gillies said, “you don’t have industry, you don’t have agriculture, you don’t have life.” ‘At the precipice’ ![]() As storms pass over the Great Salt Lake, they absorb some of its moisture, which then falls as snow in the mountains. In summer, evaporation would cause the lake to drop about two feet in spring, as the snowpack melted, the rivers would replenish it.Īnd a shrinking lake means less snow. Until recently, that hydrological system existed in a delicate balance. Snow that falls in the mountains just east of Salt Lake City feeds three rivers - the Jordan, Weber, and Bear - which provide water for the cities and towns of the Wasatch Front, as well as the rich cropland nearby, before flowing into the Great Salt Lake. That megacity is possible because of a minor hydrological miracle. Extending roughly from Provo in the south to Brigham City in the north, with Salt Lake City at its center, it’s one of the fastest-growing urban areas in America - home to 2.5 million people, drawn by the natural beauty and relatively modest cost of living. Utahns call that metropolis the Wasatch Front, after the 12,000-foot Wasatch Range above it. At the edge of that oasis, between the city and the desert, is the Great Salt Lake. “It can actually happen.”īut keep going east, and just shy of Wyoming you would find a modern oasis: a narrow strip of green, stretching some 100 miles from north to south, home to an uninterrupted metropolis beneath snow-capped mountains, sheltered under maple and pear trees. “It’s not just fear-mongering,” he said of the lake vanishing. Otherwise, he said, the Great Salt Lake risks the same fate as California’s Owens Lake, which went dry decades ago, producing the worst levels of dust pollution in the United States and helping to turn the nearby community into a veritable ghost town. Hawkes, a Republican lawmaker who wants more aggressive action. The stakes are alarmingly high, according to Timothy D. Utah’s dilemma raises a core question as the country heats up: How quickly are Americans willing to adapt to the effects of climate change, even as those effects become urgent, obvious, and potentially catastrophic? That would threaten the region’s breakneck population growth and high-value agriculture - something state leaders seem reluctant to do. Saving the Great Salt Lake would require letting more snowmelt from the mountains flow to the lake, which means less water for residents and farmers. “We have this potential environmental nuclear bomb that’s going to go off if we don’t take some pretty dramatic action,” said Joel Ferry, a Republican state lawmaker and rancher who lives on the north side of the lake.Īs climate change continues to cause record-breaking drought, there are no easy solutions. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population. Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off - scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer - threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. SALT LAKE CITY - If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store: ![]() To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
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