As it stands, Utah’s Great Salt Lake is projected to dry up within only five years due to various human interventions. The lake, which serves as a vital ecosystem to over 10 million migrating birds, has shrunk to about six metres below its average elevation, earning a record-breaking low in the lake’s recorded history. Being the largest endorheic (salt) lake in the western hemisphere, the Great Salt Lake has no outlet for water or salt to flow out of. So, as the lake’s water continues to be evaporated by increasingly common droughts, it leaves behind minerals such as salt. As the lake continues to grow in salinity, what was once a unique ecosystem for essential keystone species such as brine shrimp becomes a wasteland, inhabitable by formerly abundant organisms. As of September 2022, the lake’s southern arm had been recorded to have a deadly 18% salinity, higher than many foundational species to survive in including the brine shrimp, a primary food source for millions of migratory birds.

The effects of the shrinking lake not only directly disrupts the lake’s ecosystem but the lives of those hundreds of miles away. Sunk into the Great Salt Lake’s shores are alarmingly high concentrations of arsenic and other heavy metals that pose more and more of a potential for toxic dust storms as more of the lake bed is exposed. Not only does the spread of these lethal metals present a health hazard to the residents and ecosystems of Utah, but the dust, when seeped into snow darkens its colour, attracting more heat and melts the snow quicker, contributing to global warming.
The urgency of the situation has not fallen on deaf ears as researchers and government officials push ways for the average resident to help, namely by conserving their water use in hopes of refilling the lake. In recent years, Utah’s government has taken action to restrict the population’s water usage, banning mandatory watering of lawns and encouraging a shift to water wise plants. Organisations like Slowtheflow.org are dedicated to providing information and resources to people to aid in the water conservation effort.

Sources

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www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/drying-great-salt-lake-could-expose-millions-to-t

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Randall, Brianna. “The Great Salt Lake Is Shrinking. What Can We Do to Stop It?” Science

News, 18 May 2023,

www.sciencenews.org/article/great-salt-lake-shrinking-utah-drought#:~:text=record%20k

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YouTube, 18 Oct. 2022, youtu.be/bsBXpt5RIsQ?si=3_JFd5DGp7JVfh8t.

“Simple Ways You Can Conserve.” Slow the Flow, slowtheflow.org/.

“Toxic Dust Warnings Might Be Our Future as the Great Salt Lake Shrivels Up.” KUER, 26 July

2022,

www.kuer.org/health-science-environment/2022-06-20/toxic-dust-warnings-might-be-our

-future-as-the-great-salt-lake-shrivels-up.

Kintisch, Eli. “At the Great Salt Lake, Record Salinity and Low Water Imperils Millions of

Birds.” Science.Org, 9 Sept. 2022,

www.science.org/content/article/great-salt-lake-record-salinity-and-low-water-imperils-m

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Riley, Eliana. “Is Great Salt Lake Drying up in 2023? Discover the Facts and Experts’

Predictions.” AZ Animals, 22 July 2023,

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%20the,water%20flowing%20into%20the%20lake.

“Utah’s Salt Lake Is Drying up. It Could Cause Ecological Disaster.” KCRW, 28 June 2022,

www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/democrats-ukraine-brittne

y-griner-utah-hikes/salt-lake-ecological-disaster#:~:text=And%20it%20has%20high%20

concentrations,sunk%20into%20the%20lake%20bed.

Photo sources

https://wasatchmovingco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/shutterstock_96405329.jpg

https://www.desertusa.com/desert-utah/photos/Pelicans-crandall.jpg

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