Could you pump ocean water into the Great Salt Lake?
It would take a huge project to pump water from the ocean to the Great Salt Lake. The initial cost to build the needed infrastructure would be several hundred billion dollars.
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To augment the declining Great Salt Lake , a pipeline has been proposed to pump seawater from the Pacific Ocean. As extreme as it sounds, the idea is still being considered almost a year after it was first raised.
According to a recent study by Brigham Young University, it's possible that Great Salt Lake could dry up completely in the next five years. Drought has plagued the western United States for decades and has left significant consequences.
However, the most deleterious effect of the Great Salt Lake drying up is that the air surrounding Salt Lake City could sporadically become poisonous. Since the bed of the Great Salt Lake holds high levels of dangerous particles like arsenic, antimony, copper, zirconium, and various heavy metals.
A recent report suggests the lake could disappear within five years. In fall 2022, the Great Salt Lake hit its lowest water level since record keeping began. The lake's elevation sank to nearly six meters below the long-term average.
Already, the lake has lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area, as trillions of litres of water are diverted away from it to supply farms and homes. As a result, the lake is becoming saltier and uninhabitable to native flies and brine shrimp.
Currently, about 40 percent of the river water is diverted and used for farming, industry and other forms of human consumption. According to Wurtsbaugh, human water use has lowered the lake level 11 feet (3.3 meters) in the last 10 years.
Salty water is denser than regular water, and it is analogous to that of the human body in Great Salt Lake. As a result, going underwater is tough (basically sink in water).