Great Salt Lake on track to disappear in five years, scientists warn

[In It to Win It]

https://news.yahoo.com/great-salt-lake-track-disappear-004427524.html

ithout dramatic cuts to water consumption, Utah's Great Salt Lake is on track to disappear within five years, a dire new report warns, imperiling ecosystems and exposing millions of people to toxic dust from the drying lake bed.

The report, led by researchers at Brigham Young University and published this week, found that unsustainable water use has shrunk the lake to just 37 percent of its former volume. The West's ongoing mega-drought - a crisis made worse by climate change - has accelerated its decline to rates far faster than scientists had predicted.

But current conservation measures are critically insufficient to replace the roughly 40 billion gallons of water the lake has lost annually since 2020, the scientists said.

The report calls on Utah and nearby states to curb water consumption by a third to a half, allowing 2.5 million acre feet of water to flow from streams and rivers directly into the lake for the next couple of years. Otherwise, it said, the Great Salt Lake is headed for irreversible collapse.

"This is a crisis," said Brigham Young University ecologist Ben Abbott, a lead author of the report. "The ecosystem is on life support, [and] we need to have this emergency intervention to make sure it doesn't disappear."

[cbabe]

1. Scientists will get $25 million to study salt lake ecosystems in the drought-stricken U.S. West, as

https://apnews.com › article › utah-state-government-oregon-california-climate-and-environment-environmental-conservation-1d337599b8103ac3cb6974795ae3d7c5

Biden signs bill to study salt lakes in drought-hit US West

Dec 27, 2022 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Scientists will get $25 million to study salt lake ecosystems in the drought-stricken U.S. West, as President Joe Biden signed legislation Tuesday allocating the funds in the face of unprecedented existential threats caused by the lack of water.

[Deuxcents]

2. Only 37% of its current volume.. this can't be the first time for restrictions, can it?

[TheRealNorth]

3. See Aral Sea

Oh, right- you can't because it doesn't really exist anymore.

[msongs]

4. pump water in from the pacific and bill it to utah nt

[dalton99a]

5. Don't move yet

The weather this year has given Utah a prime opportunity to, in Abbott's words, "put the lake first." After a series of December storms, the state's snowpack is already at 170 percent of normal January levels. If that snow persists and precipitation continues through the rest of the winter, it would enable the state to set aside millions of acre feet of water for the lake without making such drastic cuts to consumption.

"I'm generally optimistic," said Hasenyager, the water resources director. "I don't think we are past a point of no return - yet."

[NickB79]

10. IF the farmers let the water reach the lake

They could irrigate enough that almost none of the water reaches the lake, if politicians don't stop them and keep a business as usual approach.

[mn9driver]

6. You can see it disappearing in real time.

I’ve flown over it for 34 years and the changes are drastic. It will be just a wet area with a few big puddles very soon.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. But what about washing cars, watering lawns, fountains, and antiquated irrigation systems?

[Cetacea]

8. Crickets

Thanks you for posting this.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. Hard to believe. Great Salt Lake was once part of an

Immense inland lake. Now it's almost all gone.