![]() “You’ve got the lake shrinking, the habitat is drying up and what water is remaining is too salty for (algae and microbes) to survive,” Baxter said. With only sail boats and paddleboards navigating the lake, it is so peaceful, 80,000 white pelicans annually nest on islands without fish.īut as the water evaporates without replenishment, the yacht basin is all mud, predators can walk to the pelican nests and the bottom of the food chain is collapsing. Only brine flies and shrimp can survive in the salty water, creating a unique ecosystem that supports 10 million migratory birds. EROS/USGSĪs a so-called “terminal lake,” Great Salt Lake is fed by rain, snow and runoff but with no rivers to take water to the ocean, salt and minerals build up over time. Satellite images show the water levels of the Great Salt Lake in 1987, left, and 2022. “We know about dust storms, we know about particulate pollution, we know about heavy metals and how they’re bad for humans,” she told CNN. “This is an ecological disaster that will become a human health disaster,” warned Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. As that mud turns to dust and swirls to join some of the worst winter air pollution in the nation, scientists warn that the massive body of water could evaporate into a system of lifeless finger lakes within five years, on its way to becoming the Great Toxic Dustbowl. When lake levels hit historic lows in recent months, 800 square miles of lakebed were exposed – soil that holds centuries of natural and manmade toxins like mercury, arsenic and selenium. A disappearing Great Salt Lake could poison the lungs of more than 2.5 million people. ![]() But megadrought and overconsumption aren’t just threats to wildlife, agriculture and industry here. Like the rest of the West, Utah has a water problem. 304, and a map compiled by Daniel Smith from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.On the shore of Great Salt Lake, Utah CNN Illustration based on Great Salt Lake, an overview of change, p. ![]() It includes three major river systems: Bear (blue), Ogden/Weber (purple), and Jordan (orange). The Great Salt Lake drainage basin covers about 22,000 square miles and includes most of Northern Utah as well as parts of Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. The saltiest regions of Great Salt Lake are nearly 9 times saltier than the ocean. Over many thousands of years, minerals have accumulated to very high levels. As water evaporates from the lake, the minerals stay behind. Even though the water flowing into Great Salt Lake is fresh, it contains small amounts of dissolved minerals. Most terminal lakes have a high mineral content and, like Great Salt Lake, are quite salty. And what goes into the lake tends to stay in the lake. So in this part of the world, all drains lead to Great Salt Lake. The only way water can leave is through evaporation. Water flows downhill, and the ocean is at the bottom of the hill, right? But Great Salt Lake sits at the bottom of a "closed basin". Much of the water that falls to the ground makes its way through a watershed - a series of streams, rivers and lakes - to the ocean. In some areas, a one foot change in elevation can cause the shoreline to move as much as one mile. Even within a single year, it's normal for the water level to change by 2 to 3 feet. The shoreline expands and wetlands get covered by salt water, sometimes killing sensitive plants and destroying wildlife habitats. During high precipitation years, lake levels rise and salinity drops. Low water levels sometimes connect islands to the shore, exposing bird nesting areas to predators. The shoreline recedes and wetlands dry up. ![]() When less water than normal flows into the lake, water levels drop and salinity rises. The water level changes a lot from year to year. Water temperatures vary from below freezing in the winter to more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Its shallow depth means that much of its surface area is exposed to the air, and is subject to its seasonal temperature fluctuations. Great Salt Lake is an average of just 14 feet deep, with a maximum depth of 33 feet.
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