With Great Salt Lake’s unique challenges come unique opportunities for finding solutions to protect the lake for future generations. Although agreement on the means to protect GSL into the future remains elusive, the important issues have been identified, and managers, stakeholders, and policy makers have determined that the path to a solution must be collaborative. To assist with this collaboration, the legislature established the GSL Advisory Council (GSLAC) to advise administrative and legislative bodies on the sustainable use, protection, and development of GSL. Since its inception in 2010, GSLAC, which is comprised of elected officials and stakeholder representatives, has met bimonthly to discuss issues of concern for Great Salt Lake stakeholders and advise policy makers and management agencies on the sustainable use, protection, and development of GSL. Collaborative research on GSL has accelerated. Research grants are issued annually by the Utah Department of Natural Resources through the GSL Technical Team. The GSL Ecosystem Program was formed to coordinate monitoring and research efforts in order to conserve avian and aquatic communities. Local, state, and federal management and scientific agencies continue to seek opportunities to leverage limited resources into a broader understanding of and positive impact on the lake. Interest in reversing the long-term downward trend in lake level has also grown. In 2017, GSLAC published a collaboratively-sourced report describing 72 water delivery strategies that could be employed to ensure water for GSL. In 2019, the Utah legislature unanimously passed and the Governor signed a resolution encouraging collaboration amongst a wide range of stakeholders “to develop recommendations for policy and other solutions to ensure adequate water flows to Great Salt Lake and its wetlands”, with a progress report and recommendations to be presented by the end of 2020. To succeed, policies to protect the lake must be underlain by public support. Environmental advocacy groups have been critical in generating public awareness and support for GSL. Commercial entities around the lake have been essential in communicating the economic values of the lake to the public and policy makers. Caretakers of the lake must continue to seek common ground among environmental advocates, commercial interests, managers, and policy makers to ensure that Great Salt Lake can continue to support critical ecological, economic, and cultural values for current and future generations. ■ Nicholas von Stackelberg is an environmental engineer and Jake Vander Laan is an environmental scientist and Great Salt Lake Coordinator for the Utah Division of Water Quality. Utah Department of Environmental Quality, 195 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-4870, 801-536-4300 Contact: nvonstackelberg@utah.gov and jvander@utah.gov
Saline lakes worldwide, including Mono Lake, Owens Lake, Lake Urmia, and the Aral Sea, among others, have all suffered from inadequate freshwater inflows. GSL is no exception. Consequences associated with desiccated saline lakes around the world have included the collapse of fisheries, disruption and loss of essential ecosystem services, negative impacts to agriculture and human health resulting from dust storms associated with dry lake beds, and overall economic impact in the tens of billions of dollars. The consequences of a desiccated GSL would be dire. Reduced lake levels would have enormous ecological effects on the millions of migratory and resident shorebirds and waterfowl. The annual $1.3 billion economic impact from the brine shrimp fishery, mineral industry and recreation would be imperiled. The low lake level in 2018 exposed nearly 1,500 square kilometers of lake bed and turned islands into peninsulas (Figure 2). Further exposed lake bed could degrade air quality and negatively impact human health, while enhancing Wasatch Mountain snowmelt from dust deposition. Although awareness of the threat to GSL from depleted inflows has grown substantially among managers, stakeholders, policy makers, and the Utah public in recent years, neither minimum inflows nor a conservation pool have been established, leaving the lake in existential legal limbo.
Figure 2. Satellite imagery showing Great Salt Lake near historic low lake levels, November 2018. Orange contour line approximates Great Salt Lake’s long-term average lake elevation of 4200 feet. Satellite imagery from USGS LandsatLook (https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/).
September 2019
VOLUME 21 - NUMBER 5 | 17
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