How long will the Salt Lake last?

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.



People Also Ask

So just how bad is it, really? A new scientific report warns the lake is on track to disappear in the next five years, unless water use is cut by as much as 50% annually.

MORE DETAILS

Water experts say it's going to take more than one big year to fill the Great Salt Lake. SALT LAKE CITY — Ever since The Great Salt Lake hit its lowest water level on record in November 2022, concerns over things like arsenic in the exposed lake bed have only grown.

MORE DETAILS

One of the world's largest hypersaline lakes, the Great Salt Lake is on the verge of collapse due to climate change, drought, and population pressures that have reduced inflows and shrunk the lake by more than two-thirds.

MORE DETAILS

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Division of Water Resources is sharing good news about the impacts all the rain is having on the Great Salt Lake, whose water levels reached a historic low last year.

MORE DETAILS

Lake Levels Due to its shallowness (an average of 14 feet deep and a maximum of 35 feet deep), the water level can fall dramatically during dry years and rise during wet years. When snowpack melts in the spring, the lake usually rises about 2 feet. However, record snowpack in 2023 triggered a rise of 5.5 feet!

MORE DETAILS

Most recent data within water-surface elevations show a downward trend. With climate change and Utah's ever growing human population, we expect this negative trend to continue. In fact, it is estimated that the lake is 11 feet lower due to human diversions.

MORE DETAILS

Essentially, a water trust would pay irrigators to leave some or all of the water they are permitted to use in the stream or river instead of diverting it to water crops. These water leases could last a single summer or several years. Water leasing is helping restore other ailing saline lakes.

MORE DETAILS

Compass Minerals announced in 2021 it was seeking to extract lithium from the Great Salt Lake under a pilot program. The company, which has a plant in Ogden, said it was utilizing new methods of extracting the precious resource within the ambient brine of the Great Salt Lake.

MORE DETAILS

Because of the abundant algae and halophiles, as well as the high salinity, the lake does not support fish — but it teems with brine shrimp and brine flies, which provide essential nutrition for migrating birds.

MORE DETAILS

The precipitous drop in water levels, which has shrunk the Great Salt Lake's footprint by half in the last decades, stems from a two-fold problem: Climate change has decimated the mountain streams that feed the lake, while demand for that same freshwater has ballooned for new development, agriculture and industry.

MORE DETAILS

3 ways we're working to preserve Great Salt Lake
  1. Improving watershed management. Management of water is critical to safeguarding Great Salt Lake. ...
  2. Enhancing water conservation. Utah is committed to using our existing water supply as wisely as possible and ensuring the success of our state. ...
  3. Optimizing agricultural tools.


MORE DETAILS

“Impressive winter precipitation and record-breaking snowpack have undoubtedly improved the situation of Great Salt Lake,” Hasenyager said. “However, it's important to note that it will take much more than one above-average winter to fully replenish the lake's water levels and address our long-term challenges.”

MORE DETAILS

Set a lake elevation range goal. Invest in conservation. Invest in water monitoring and modeling. Develop a holistic water management plan.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The shallow bottom of Great Salt Lake supports a microbial carpet that harness the sun's energy through the process of photosynthesis. This carpet is made up of a community of microbes, including several types of cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae), algae and other organisms.

MORE DETAILS