[Rockhounds] The Great Salt Lake Is Dying, But These Scientists Have a Solution

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A worrying study published
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010024002312?via%3Dihub>
last
month in *Environmental Challenges* claims that nearly two-thirds of the
Great Salt Lake’s shrinkage is attributable to human use of river water
that otherwise would have replenished the lake.

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a relic of a once-vast lake that occupied the
same site during the Ice Age. The lake’s level has fluctuated since
measurements
<https://geology.utah.gov/popular/great-salt-lake/commonly-asked-questions/> of
it began in 1847, but it’s about 75 miles (120 kilometers) long by 35 miles
(56 km) wide with a maximum depth of 33 feet (10 meters). The Great Salt
Lake’s water levels hit a record low
<https://gizmodo.com/utahs-great-salt-lake-is-officially-at-its-lowest-point-1847370873>
in
2021, which was usurped
<https://gizmodo.com/utah-great-salt-lake-drought-climate-change-1849147535>
the
following year.

According to the recent paper, about 62% of the river water that otherwise
would have refilled the lake has instead been used for “anthropogenic
consumption.” The research team found that agricultural use cases were
responsible for 71% of those human-driven depletions; furthermore, about
80% of the agricultural water is used for crops to feed just under one
million cattle.

“The research highlights the alarming role of water consumption for feeding
livestock in driving the lake’s rapid depletion,” said William Ripple, an
ecologist at Oregon State University and co-author of the paper, in a
university release
<https://news.oregonstate.edu/news/reducing-irrigation-livestock-feed-crops-needed-save-great-salt-lake-study-argues>
.

The lake is no stranger to change...

https://gizmodo.com/the-great-salt-lake-is-dying-these-scientists-have-a-solution-2000547091