Will the Great Salt Lake dry up?

[antlerradar]

We’ve been on this continent and kept history for what 300-500 years? And somehow we magically know how things were 10,000 years ago or what’s gonna happen in the future based on some guess about the past?

The arrogance of this philosophy amuses me.

Tell the Utahrds to pee in it to refill it.

Drinking beer can temporarily solve lots of problems, not sure if this is one of them, it couldn't hurt. I wonder if you could convince the mormons to give it a try.

 

[Art Vandeley]

Personally, I can't hardly believe this would surprise anyone? Crazy to think that less than 220 years ago, Lewis & Clark made it to the Pacific Ocean. The amount of man made change to the Western United States is staggering and to think it's mostly been done in the last 150 years. That is a very short timeframe in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure we are only beginning to see the changes to the landscape caused by man made development. Sorry for the pessimistic post.

 

[Irrelevant]

^We're going to have to rename Glacier national park at some point.

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/repeat-photography-project

The amount in change to our landscape in the last 100 years is truly shocking

 

[D4570]

"The amount of change to our landscape in the last 100 years is truly shocking"

That's what the dinosaurs must have said too.

 

[choc dogs]

This appears to have somewhat mitigated itself. Hope when it warms up the canyons don’t destroy too much.

 

[hank4elk]

Oh yeah it will.
Mormons own the soda companies and half the alfalfa raised.

I can say I walked on the last glaciers in the Sierra's... pre 2000.

 

[Scott85]

I can say I walked on the last glaciers in the Sierra's... pre 2000.

After this winter they might have gotten a little bit of a reprieve.

 

[WesternWyoming]

From today's 4/6/23 Salt Lake Tribune: "Great Salt Lake has risen 3 feet above historic low set in November"

During this unprecedented Utah winter, many are wondering how much the snowfall will help end the state’s drought and fill the Great Salt Lake.

While the drought status of the majority of Utah continues to lessen each week, the good news continues at the lake.

On Wednesday, the Great Salt Lake was measured at 3 feet higher than its historic low reached last November.


The lake hit 4191.5 feet above sea level at 2:15 p.m., which is a yard over the record low of 4188.5 feet.

Even better, the large lake rise has come before the true snow runoff has begun. With Utah having already surpassed it’s all-time snowpack numbers, the runoff could be epic, which would be great news for the lake.

The runoff could get underway in earnest next week when temperatures in northern Utah are expected to reach the 70s, just days after the current April storm wraps up.

It was only last week when none of the state was under “Exceptional Drought” status for the first time in three years. Currently, just under 20 percent of Utah, including the Salt Lake area, is in “Severe Drought” and those numbers continue to drop each week.

 

[Lilhowie83]

My coworker and I were talking today and he brought up the fact that when the "GSL" hit record low last fall, all the ski resorts were worried that they were not going to have any snow, because of no lake effect. Now here we are in April and all the Major resorts are over 800" of snow this year. Even my little ski hill in Northern Utah is aproaching 500". It will be interesting to see how much it rises this spring.

 

[NAHMINT]

Then,just mabe, ANTELOPE ISLAND will once again be AN ISLAND !!

 

[Flynarrow]

GSL starved for water is just one more symptom that we have surpassed our human carrying capacity by gradually destroying our own habitat. Of course, other living beings, having no voice will suffer along with us.

 

[David58]

I raise the BS flag on drying up. The Chicken Littles cry that the sky is falling, and it doesn't. Cycles, it's all cycles. Add a political narrative, and whatcha get? One winter, and the big drought is mitigated - and that is before el Nino pushes more water toward the southwest. Cycles.

The climate is always changing.

David
NM

 

[howl]

Wait until you hear the Earth's atmosphere lose about thirty thousand tons of matter every year. Erf gonna dry up.

 

[Aperventure]

Yes, if human actions with inflows to terminal Lakes track like the last 100 years. It’s not a debate over whether climate change is real or not folks, it’s water diversions and water rights.

Aral Sea Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan - dry. water inflows diverted for ag by Ruskies.
Owens lake - dry. water inflows diverted first for ag (oranges) then urban areas LA
Lake Poopo Bolovia - dry. Water inflows diverted for ag and mining. Reduced glaciers also reduce inflows.
Lake Urima Iran. 10% of 1984 levels. Dams and diversions for ag. Uncertain use of diverted inflows cause, well it’s Iran.
Salton Sea CA. nearly dry. Not the best example (or is it?) since it was created by a Colorado river flood. The water inflows were never consistently sufficient on an annual basis to keep it at a stable level. Before the diversions all the other lakes had at least a stable level.


Humans aren’t good at change which makes life more difficult for themselves. I’m no different, tho I have xeriscaped our home and some of our rentals. But that don’t change over 50% of GSL inflows are being diverted due To (mostly) ag water rights.

I do think the utah govt (controlled by LDS) who own most of real estate will spend huge state $$$ to mitigate it drying up in order to preserve their real
Estate values. However the ecological damage will be done before they make that happen. Some Solutions proposed have been
-pacific pipeline
-drill o&g depth wells to pump up groundwater
-divert snake river
-divert Columbia river
-paying farmers not to grow and send water to lake. Just like CRP land
- LDS church has granted soamemof its water shares directly to the lake. So they are doing something.

Utah are already pumping green river water over the Unitas and wasatch mtns to supply part of the wasatch front potable water.

​

 

[Aperventure]

I suggest you Read Cadillac desert chapter about this. US army corp engineers looked into it. Would require a nuclear plant every 100 (or 500, I don’t recall exactly) miles or so from Mississippi to pipeline end. It Wasn’t finiancially viable. And US army corp Of engineers just loved to build stuff with terrible financials just cause they are engineers and govt (eg taxpayer) pays for it.

It would possibly be feasible to move flood water from the east coast to the west. The infrastructure is almost there to accommodate it. It would though require a large investment by most likely the Fed's to do it. You could clean and use some of the existing LNG and oil pipelines that are sitting there not being used. Connect them via pump stations. You could then solve 2 issues. 1. bringing water out west and 2. draining the eastern reservoirs before a large storm to curb the flooding. It has been done on a smaller scale in I think Singapore. Just a thought though

 

[Aperventure]

As much as I enjoy hunting. This is in top 10% of least important things to worry about.

It would be a big blow to waterfowl hunters.

 

[Jape]

As much as I enjoy hunting. This is in top 10% of least important things to worry about.